Amnesia
by ipreferoriginal
Summary: What was at first Hydra's favorite hard drive, soon became a girl, a girl the falcon took a liking too. To be fair everyone did. But there was only one man running through her head, he was Hydra but not by choice just like her. If he was alive, she would save him. It's the least she owed him. Rated T to be safe, sometimes I swear but I don't think I have yet
1. i

The mission was put together quickly. There was a Hydra base out there that Ultron wanted taken out but when Pietro and Wanda Maximoff went to do the job, they couldn't get in. The doors were unbreachable with any amount of gunpowder and according to a few locals, the base hadn't been occupied in decades. They told the robot they had done it, and he took their word.

When Wanda Maximoff told everyone else about the escapade, Maria Hill found interest in one name, Amnesia. It was the hard drive that contained the most important Hydra secrets. Natasha asked why it mattered after she had released every speck of dirt SHIELD and Hydra held onto the internet and Hill couldn't confirm her thoughts to be more than paranoia. There was one small detail though, that kept her interest and convinced the team they'd need to go. Amnesia couldn't be found anywhere in the files Natasha released and it was known to be real.

"Stark what are your readings?" Steve asks as they analyze the door carved into the mountain.

"Depends on when you ask. Right now they're quiet, ask me in a minute and they might not be. It seems a lot like breathing almost. No life signs, at least none I can pick up," Stark answers flying over the small mountain looking for an ulterior entrance. There's nothing, not even a landing strip.

"Are we sure this is the only entrance?" Natasha asks running a hand over the dents in the solid door. The image of Pietro Maximoff ramming into it with his shoulder is pushed into her mind and she nods at Wanda, thanking her for the explanation and telling her to get out of her head as politely as possible. Wanda's been an uneasy member to welcome onto their team. They know she's grieving, keeping her distance as she does so, but everyone can feel a sort of energy enter their minds every once in a while. They know she doesn't mean to, she does it as a habit, like she did with her brother.

"Positive," is Steve's answer.

"That's what we were told as well," Wanda says.

"What I want to know is how they got supplies in here. We know it's a big base, also served as a lab before it was abandoned, so they had to have been supplied, and well supplied, but how did they get the stuff inside?" Steve asks as Tony lands near the door with everyone else.

"Empty room behind it, watch out, I'm gonna take it off it's hinges," he says first shooting a missile at it. Everyone yells and ducks for cover. One the dust has cleared, they all look to see the door still standing and layers of rock around it, crumbling and/or gone, to reveal a metal shell underneath.

"Any other ideas?" Rhodes asks sarcastically.

"Preferably one that doesn't start an avalanche?" Clint asks.

"Everyone take a seat, we're gonna be here a while," Tony replies then starts painstakingly cutting through the revealed metal around the door with a strong laser he probably shouldn't be allowed to have.

* * *

"Here we go," Tony says. "Do the honors little witch?" Tony asks once he finishes cutting around the door ten-fifteen minutes later. She rolls her eyes and pushes it back with her telekinesis, letting the door fall back and hit the floor, a bang echoing through the empty base inside.

All there is in the first room in a desk with papers scattered across it, most checking people and supplies in and out. Everything else is just basic things you'd find in a base, supplies waiting to go somewhere, a metal desk chair that looks quite uncomfortable, and a calendar. Two things are off. Beneath the fallen door is a welcome mat, the thistles worn down but nonetheless, the most homely thing you'd ever find in a military base. The second, the lights were on. All of them.

"That's impossible," Tony murmurs analyzing the old lights himself.

"What?" Sam asks.

"These lights are all burnt out," he explains.

"Someone is in here," Wanda murmurs softly and only Clint and Natasha hear since they're right next to her.

"Friend or foe?" Clint asks notching a bow.

"I'm not sure. They're thinking too fast, I can't keep up," she says a little more loudly but even less concentrated on the place in front of her.

"Up here," Sam says and everyone goes to him to see him standing at the door to a cavernous room, wires run up and down, screens plastered everywhere. It's an information center, at the center of it is a girl on a hospital bed, an IV in her arm and wires on her temples.

"Can't get a read on her?" Steve confirms looking at Wanda she shakes her head moving closer to her unable to quell her curiosity.

"I think she's what we're looking for," Natasha says looking over a file on a table nearby. It's titled Amnesia and holds pictures of the woman on the table as well as why she's hooked up. "She's almost as old as you Grandpa," she adds after seeing the date in which she was first hooked up. "One of those freezes her metabolism almost like a cryogenic freeze but she retains brain function, the other gives her enough sustenance to continuously do her job, store information and encrypt it. That's what all the wires are for, she is the computer."

Steve wastes no time in unhooking her from the IVs and the wires connecting her to the system. What no one expects though, is every single light and any sort of technology the base harbors, going out leaving them in darkness. Stark immediately lights up as does Rhodes.

"She was powering the base," Stark concludes going over to look at the file, and sure enough, after flipping through the pages he found what he was looking for. "Hey Spangles, you two share a common friend," he says and Steve walks over to see what he's talking about. Dr Zola had done some experiments on her and included in the file was a diary of sorts on them. "She can omit and channel energy," Stark summarizes fascinated by her.

"Amnesia isn't a hard drive, it's a girl," Steve confirms looking over the pale female, lying on the hospital bed. She's nothing but twigs with paper-like skin stretched over them. Her face lacks color, and her hair is an unhealthy white. She looks like a corpse, the only difference being the rise and fall of her chest signaling breathing.

"She is a hard drive, she's storing all the information in her head, unwillingly or willingly, she's the answer to making sure Hydra doesn't come back," Stark replies.

"We better take her back to the compound with us. I don't want anyone getting their hands on her. She deserves a life after what Hydra's done to her," Steve says picking her up from the hospital bed and following Rhodes out of the base.

"Anyone else feel like that was too easy?" Sam asks as everyone gets loaded onto the quinjet.

"No weapons, no people besides her. The place was empty, abandoned. Whoever was there left in a hurry. I bet she knows why," Rhodes answers giving him nod.

* * *

They were just about back to base when she woke up. They knew she woke up because like a snap of someone's fingers all the power in the quinjet was just gone. Everyone jumped into action, Clint and Natasha grabbed a parachute, the captain grabbed Wanda. Tony was trying to figure out what was up with the quinjet figuring something must've hit them, and Sam realized it was the girl.

"You're okay, you're safe," his words were once he reached where she was strapped to another bed. Her eyes were glowing white and Sam couldn't tell if she could see, her mouth kept opening and closing, her hands reaching for something. Sam took her hand, guided by instinct and her eyes fell to him. He felt a small zap of energy, not enough to harm him, enough to energize him like a shot of straight caffeine. "Right now we're falling out of the sky, I need you to trust me, I'm trying to save your life," he says unstrapping her. "Come on," he says trying to pull her to her feet once she's unstrapped. She seems so innocent to him, childlike in a way, and he can't help but want to trust her. She falls to the ground, frowning in the process. Sam huffs and just picks her up, carrying her as Steve did earlier.

He sets her down so he can put his wings on, then picks her right back up and jumps out of the quinjet like everyone else had. "Did anyone grab the girl?" Clint asks.

"Yes, I think she's why the plane crashed down," Sam says looking down at the girl, as she turned her face to his chest to block the wind. She reaches up to his face without looking and Sam notices her hand trembling. She's weak, he decides, she probably hasn't walked in years, hasn't had to do any physical activity in ages. She'll need extensive physical therapy to get back in any sort of condition. When her hand touches his jaw, his mind is filled with the image of some German scientist in a room he recognizes, the room he was just recently in but years ago back before it was dusty and abandoned. He decides this was a question.

"No, we just rescued you, you don't have to listen to those son of a bitches ever again," he says and he thinks he catches her smile softly in the corner of his eye.

"What was that?" Steve asks having caught that last blip.

"Nothing she's awake, we'll see you back at the compound," he adds, observing the area, and heading off toward the compound. They were just about to prepare for landing when they started falling so it won't take too long to walk or fly in Sam, Rhodes and Tony's cases back.

* * *

"You understand English right?" Sam asks once he touches ground with the girl. She nods and he notices her eyes have changed from white to red, that is her iris and pupil have changed to red. Sam still finds it hard to look her in the eye though. She just nods in response. "Can you talk?" He asks and she frowns and opens her mouth, attempting to but she just lets out a croak and she leans away from where she was like she just scared herself. "Water, you need water," he says as he decides she reminds him of a child.

"Mr Wilson," Vision says as Sam walks into the compound. He notices the girl in his arms and they both take they're time analyzing each other while Sam loses his patience and keeps walking to the kitchen. She reaches up and touches Sam's jaw again showing him an image of a German scientist saying what he'd assume to be "stop" in German. "Vision, please just follow us," Sam says with a sigh and she smiles a little satisfied. He sets her on a chair then goes to get her a glass of water.

"So, what's your name?" Sam asks once he returns with the water, only to find her in a staring contest with Vision. He waves a hand in front of her face breaking both of their concentration and holds the glass of water out for her and she reaches up to take it with a shaky hand.

"No I wouldn't," Vision starts but stops when it's clear he's too late and the water is all over the place. She frowns and Sam sighs walking to go get paper towels and wondering how he got stuck on babysitting duty. "She's got no muscle, I'm surprised she's able to sit up straight. Where did you find her?" Vision says following Sam.

"She was the base," he says walking back to see her glaring at the significantly smaller puddle of water, burn marks on the table from where her hands rest to where the water starts and the smell of a campfire to accompany the scorched table. "What happened?" Sam asks and she looks at him quickly then returns to glaring at the water, Sam hears crackling and sees the table on fire. "Woah, woah, what'd the table do to you?" Sam shouts she jumps looking back at him fearfully with bright neon green eyes.

"It's all right, accidents happen," he says nodding to the nonexistent puddle of water on the table. He wipes up what got on the floor and Vision comes in with another glass of water and a straw. He sets it close enough to her and after looking at Vision and Sam who both nod in encouragement, leans forward and takes a sip, only to start coughing. "I should've brought her to the medical wing," Sam states once she gets over it.

"Possibly, yeah," Vision agrees.

"Could you tell us your name?" Sam asks after she takes a sip without all the coughing and choking afterwards.

"Amneeesha," she says or tries to a few times before getting fed up and reaching up to touch Vision's face, projecting a scientist saying Amnesia into his head.

"Amnesia," Vision says and she nods happily.

"There you are," Rhodes says walking into the room, still all suited up. "Why'd you bring her here?" He asks.

"She needed water," Sam replies with a shrug.

"And what happened to the table?" He asks noticing Amnesia look guiltily into her lap.

"There was an incident with a glass of water," Sam says while giving a look that says I'll tell you later.

"Well, everyone else will be here soon Tony and I are flying everyone back," he explains as Steve walks into the room and Rhodes walks out. Amnesia's eyes snap to him and she stiffens, looking at him cautiously. Meanwhile, the table starts burning again as Amnesia lets a bunch of electric currents loose on the table.

"It's all right, he's a friend," Sam says and she stops frying the table, instead reaching up waving her hand. Sam gets the message and takes her hand placing it on his cheek and stepping towards her. He sees a black and white picture of Steve, and a never ending list of data on him.

"Yes that's him. He's a good guy don't worry. I don't know what they told you, but he helped save you," Sam says removing her hand, instead clasping it in his own and meeting her eyes steadily.

"It's all right ma'am I'm not hear to hurt you," Steve says following Sam's lead. Her eyebrows scrunch together and she reaches a hand out to him, Sam notices that her arm doesn't shake when she does this, this time and nods when Steve gives him a questioning look. He walks forward and allows her to place her hand on his cheek. In return, she shows him an image of James Buchanan Barnes, her soldier.

"You know Bucky?" Steve asks and she frowns at the name, tilting her head.

"James," she corrects, not struggling at all with the pronunciation of her soldier's name. She pushes the image of the word friend and another picture of James into his head and he nods.

"He was my best friend, do you know where he is?" Steve asks excitedly but that fades when she shakes her head no, a tear falling from her eye as she pulls her hand back.


	2. ii

"Okay, where is she?" Tony says a little bit angry now that he knows she is the reason his quinjet went down. He bursts into the medical wing along with Clint who was the last to be carried back. They both stand shocked when they don't see anyone in the wing. They trade confused looks and then go to find everyone standing around the dining room table a few minutes later.

"Someone roast some marshmallows? Why does it smell like a campfire in here?" He asks and Wanda moves to the side so she's not blocking his view of her. "Why is she not in the medical bay?" Tony asks like everyone else has lost their marbles.

"She needed water so I brought her here automatically," Sam explains.

"Can you talk?" Clint asks and Amnesia opens here mouth but closes it again when Sam answers for her.

"No, she can't. At least not really. We believe it's because she's been hooked up for so long, she's never needed to know so she doesn't. Do we know how long she's been hooked up?" Sam asks setting a protective hand on her shoulder. Clint takes a file he put with his quiver and throws it on the table noticing the tree-like burn marks on it.

"What happened?" He asks nodding to them.

"There was an incident with a glass of water," Vision says.

"How much do you remember?" Natasha asks without looking up from a paper from Amnesia's file. She scrunches her brows frowning before reaching up to Steve or Sam to answer.

"I don't know what that was," Sam states blinking at the images she had show him. She frowns and shows him again begging him to understand. She remembers her mother selling her to Hydra, and screaming as the woman walked away without looking back, she was about two. "She remembers her mother giving her up," Sam finally iterates. "You were young right?" He asks, looking down at her. She nods then looks to Nat to see if that was what she was looking for.

"It doesn't say when they hooked her up," Nat murmurs and Amnesia reaches out for Sam again, showing him the image he's looking for but zeroing in on the date on a newspaper proclaiming Hitler's election.

"Febuary 27, 1933," Sam states.

"How old were you?" Clint asks looking disgusted and Amnesia doesn't understand that it's her he's disgusted with so she leans back trying to shield herself from him using Sam.

"He's not angry with you, he's angry with the people that have used you all your life," Wanda says meeting Amnesia's still vivid neon green eyes. She nods not particularly believing her but leans forward a tad and raises her hand parallel to the floor, adjusting the height to show how tall she was.

"No birth date in here either," Nat murmurs.

"Are we not going to talk about how she turned my table into a Lichtenberg figure?" Tony asks and Amnesia reaches up to Sam and shows her a picture of the German scientists harming her, the message is clear, Tony isn't giving her any good vibes.

"What was that? Why does she keep doing that?" He asks noticing the exchange.

"I figured she just had Sam whipped," Nat says not looking up from the file.

"It's how she communicates. She puts an image into your mind. A memory I believe," Steve answers and Amnesia reaches up to Sam.

"She can control electric signals, what she's doing is giving off small controlled sparks of electricity and piecing together her memory in our head. Something to do with nerve endings, I'm pretty sure she stopped paying attention after that," Sam says chuckling at the end when Amnesia's message gets a little fuzzy because she didn't care what the scientist had to say after that.

"Is Amnesia her real name?" Sam asks Natasha.

"I don't know, there's nothing else in here, I think it's the name they gave her."

"Why's she called Amnesia then?" Steve asks. Amnesia reaches out for him this time instead of going through Sam. She thinks she knows the answer to this one but she doesn't like it. The schematic for the machine that was wired into her is truly horrific and she wouldn't wish anyone to bear the knowledge that it existed. Steve's eyes light up in recognition, this machine must've been what they used on Bucky, but Amnesia interprets it differently, and sees a man wanting to use it.

"Nine," she snaps. "No," she repeats in English.

"Look she's better at pouting than you are," Rhodes says elbowing Tony in the arm as they all watch this occur awkwardly.

"I'm going to take her to the medical wing, probably should've done that when we first arrived anyways," Sam says trying to ease the awkward tension in the room as Amnesia stares down Captain America and he stares back wondering what he did wrong. She allows Sam to pick her up and breaks eye contact with Steve, instead meeting Tony's eyes as she leans down, connecting her hand to the table and sending another current through it so the table is almost completely covered in the black tree-like designs, she takes her hand off before it can reach Natasha or her file though.

"Did she just?" Tony asks in shock as Sam leaves, laughing while carrying Amnesia to the medical wing. "She is grounded," Tony decides and Wanda snorts then goes off on her own.

* * *

"SAM!" Amnesia yells from her place on the floor as she glares at the DVD player in front of her. She had just finished watching the first Harry Potter movie and the DVD player disc tray was not opening. It's been about two weeks since she's arrived, and in that time she's learned to walk, although she's very wobbly and prone to fall down at any moment, and she can speak short sentences. Most of her day is spent training, learning simple things she was never taught, the rest is spent catching up on the world. She was taken by Hydra because of her unlimited brain capacity, she decided to fill her brain with knowledge that won't hurt people, which caused her to watch the Harry Potter series while reading _A Tale of Two Cities_.

"What? What's wrong?" Sam asks running into the room expecting to see some form of destruction.

"It's broken!" She mutter pointing to the DVD player. He sighs and goes over, presses the open disc tray button gently and waits a few seconds before pressing it again and holding the button down until it finally opens.

"See you just have to be patient," Sam says mocking her. She glares at him, pouting but puts the disc away and puts the second one in. "Where's the popcorn?" Sam asks hovering as Amnesia gets up and catching her as she stumbles on her way back to the couch.

"What's Pop-corn?" She asks saying popcorn slowly as to not mispronounce it.

"I'll be back," he says going off to make some.

"Whipped," Steve says as he walks into the room.

"What do you mean by that?" Amnesia asks Steve as he sits down.

"Uhm...that he does whatever you want him to," Steve says struggling to find an answer.

"Why?"

"Because...because he likes you, and he wants to help you."

"What does that mean?"

"He cares for you," Steve says struggling to explain and blushing profusely.

"Why are your," Amnesia pauses motioning to her cheeks because she doesn't know the word, "all red?" She continues.

"Aww the captain is blushing," Tony yells as he walks through the room headed to the kitchen.

"What does that mean?" Amnesia asks.

"He's embarrassed sweetheart," Tony says poking his head out and Amnesia just keeps frowning because she doesn't know what that means either. "FRIDAY, remind me to get Forget-Me-Not some sort of smart phone," Tony calls out after he sees her confused face.

"What's a smart phone?" She asks Steve quietly as she picks up her book and sets it on the arm of the couch, opening it to her previous page.

"You use it to communicate with people far away."

"Is it electronic?" She persists while reading her book.

"Yes, didn't you want to watch the movie?" Steve asks wondering how she's concentrating on the current conversation, the movie, and the book.

"I am," she says glancing up at the screen when the title screen pops up after all the previews. "Could you press play?" She adds nodding to the remote next to Steve. He nods and does so after figuring out how

"I'm just wondering how you can focus on that old English and the movie at the same time," Steve says.

"Did you know that the average human brain can phy-sic-ally concentrate on seven things at once. That's if the human is smart and trains to do so. Me, I'm above average, when I was hooked up to the computer system, I was translating computer code and sending it off sometimes without even knowing it. There were other computers and they were sort of like training wheels, meant to keep me balanced. I don't need training wheels anymore and this...old? English is a change from those numbers. I've never seen as much ones and zeroes ever in my life and I doubt you have either," Amnesia explains. "Don't even get me started on binary codes, more interesting but I've never felt more slow."

"Well, you're getting better at speaking Buttercup," Stark says.

"You keep giving me nicknames and I don't und-er-stand any of them," Amnesia says back.

"You seeing that speech therapist too?"

"Yes."

"I should pay her more."

"No you shouldn't, she doesn't help with German or Russian and she reminds me of Slova."

"Who's Slova?" Tony asks and Amnesia holds out a hand he sighs and walks over taking it, he's about to raise it to his cheek but is caught off guard when she gets the image to him without the extra help.

"I learned a lot that first week," Amnesia explains.

"All right, I've got the popcorn, extra butter," Sam says walking in and sitting between Steve and Amnesia.

"Butter?"

"Well, we know she's not American," Sam decides aloud after taking a handful of popcorn. "What do you think Steve?"

"Dark hair, brown eyes, possibly Italian? Do you remember your first language."

"Bulgarian?" She offers uncertainly. "Maybe Romanian?"

"Probably Romanian then," Stark decides. "Well, see you later. Welcome to the world outside of the medical wing."

"He irr-itates me," Amnesia says absently when he leaves.

"He irritates us all believe me. Try some popcorn," Sam says offering her the bowl. She glances at it and Sam's knowing face then takes a piece and swallows it like a pill looking at him for approval. "No! No! You've got to chew it, savor the taste," Sam scolds. Steve rolls his eyes and grabs a piece of popcorn from the bowl and tosses it in his mouth. Amnesia observes and follows his example.

"So what do you think?" Sam presses.

"It's okay?" Amnesia offers.

"What do you mean okay?" Steve asks bewildered.

"I don't really have much to compare it to. I've only ever gotten my energy from an IV."

"You've been here for two weeks!" Sam shouts.

"Been in the medical ward for two weeks, they kept me on an IV while they made sure I was healthy enough for this world."

"Now that's just cruel, Steve, you up for pizza?" Sam asks.

"I heard pizza?" Wanda asks walking into the room. "Hello Amnesia nice to see you out of the medical wing."

"Hello Wanda," she replies cheerfully.

"Amnesia is even less caught up on the world than you and the Captain combined. I am educating her, starting with pizza," Sam states.

"No!" Amnesia suddenly yells, looking down at her book.

"What's wrong?" Sam asks worriedly.

"Sydney Carton dies!" Amnesia says her eyes watering.

"Spoiler alert," Sam says raising an eyebrow.

"He was my favorite, and he loved her and he gave up everything for her and didn't want a thing in return! That's so unfair," Amnesia murmurs, returning to reading. "He deserves better than all of them."

"I'm going to go order the pizza," Sam says cautiously as everyone remains staring at Amnesia startled by her outburst.

"You're still reading it though?" Steve asks.

"I know I hate it," Amnesia mutters. He chuckles and lets her return to her book, instead focusing on the movie, and the two kids piloting a flying car.

Later they leave her to go to sleep in her new quarters with the promise she could decorate them however she wanted. However, after learning how to operate the various appliances in the bathroom, she sat on her bed glaring at the lights. They didn't have any buttons or levers on them and despite how high she could jump, which wasn't that high, she could not reach the light to find the off switch. With her temper rising at the glowing bulb it finally burnt out in a shower of sparks. She smiled slightly and let her head hit the pillow falling to sleep rather quickly, leaving everyone else in the compound to wonder how all of their power suddenly dissipated.


	3. iii

**AN: got some lovely little easter eggs in here for you, feel free to leave a review, they coddle my cold dead heart (especially if you catch an easter egg).**

 **Disclaimer, I do not own any of the characters in here besides my OC and her background story(ish) (if I did Bucky Barnes would be safe and happy and Pietro Maximoff would still be alive, Bruce wouldn't be a butt and Steve and Tony would be together but alas):**

"So why don't you like Steve?" Sam asks a few days later watching as Amnesia attempts to make cookies and aiding her whenever and however necessary whether it be showing her how much a cup was, what the different ingredients were, and even lifting up something because it was just too heavy for her.

"I like him just fine but I don't trust him. He's always asking me about this schematic and it's something no one should know, it's a torture so inhumane I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. He keeps asking about how it works, what it does, like it's information owed to him, like he plans on using it. If it were up to me, no one would ever use it, or be able to," Amnesia says firmly. "Is this the right consis-ten-cy?" She asks holding up a glob of cookie dough on her wooden spoon. It's getting hard for her to mix and she hopes she didn't mess up.

"Yeah, let me taste it before you start putting it on the sheets," Sam says eagerly sticking a finger in the dough.

"No! It's got raw eggs in it!" Amnesia shouts stopping him from putting the dough in his mouth.

"It's all right Am, the stuff about raw eggs is just a myth, try it," Sam says before sticking the glob he grabbed on her nose earning an indignant huff from her. He grabs another glob from the bowl then steps away to eat it under Amnesia's glare. She's a lot healthier than hen they found her. She's started to gain a little bit of muscle though she still weighs scarily less than she should and you can count each of her ribs without even trying. They don't believe she'll ever be able to have kids due to being extremely malnourished most of her life and she still sheds a lot although her hair has stopped coming out in clumps. Her hair seems to be naturally silvery white and her skin is still paler than a vampire's but that's because she's been too busy learning inside than to go sunbathing outside. The doctor's were about to diagnose her with extreme ADD before realizing it wasn't that she couldn't focus, it was that she could focus on a million things at once. Sam just thinks she's cute.

"I think you're lying," Amnesia murmurs wiping the glob he stuck on her nose on his arm and getting a cookie sheet out. Sam lunges after her, swiping another glob of dough and pouncing. He holds her head and forces the dough into her mouth as she projects the image she imagined of him vomiting endlessly into a toilet making him cringe.

"It's good right?" Sam asks ignoring the horrifying image she tried to blind him with and looking at her eagerly.

"Won't taste as good on the way back up! If I get food poisoning I'm going to break your drone and you'll never be able to work it again," Amnesia shouts bitterly as she pouts.

"Are you going to add the chocolate chips?" Sam asks smugly raising an eyebrow at the cup of chocolate chips she had already portioned out. She just raise her middle finger in response before adding them to the batter and mixing them in annoyed at how difficult the task is. "Who taught you that?" Sam asks shocked.

"Clint does it to Tony all the time, I figured it meant I hate you."

"...yeah I guess you're right."

"Sam? Steve was looking for you, apparently you promised to spare with him?" Natasha says walking into the kitchen and grabbing a cup, ignoring the mess that came with Amnesia attempting to make cookies. She's smiling slightly so Sam has a feeling she witnessed some of what just transpired. Natasha and Wanda have been urging Sam to take her on a date but Sam doesn't think it's a good idea.

"Idiot!" Amnesia scoffs under her breath but the other two catch it and give her a look only to realize she's talking to the TV in the other room.

"Whatcha watching?" Natasha asks arching an eyebrow. They have all decided Amnesia is like a child and most of them do not have the patience unlike Sam who has become her favorite without a doubt. She likes Tony second best because she has found she likes to piss him off but he doesn't stay at the compound too often and neither does Clint having claimed to "retire." Wanda is her third favorite just because she likes the company and practicing the languages they have in common. Natasha and Rhodes she doesn't have a preference for quite yet as she hasn't really spoken to either of them. Vision is the most interesting to Amnesia though, as their minds work the same although Amnesia likes to think she's faster and more advanced.

"It's called Gotham, it's really cool although sometimes the main character is dumber than Tony. He and Lee are cute together though. I'll be really sad if something happens to one of them."

"Is that possible?" Sam asks. "I'd place those further apart," Sam corrects and helps position the mounds of cookie dough.

"Sam?" Natasha questions.

"I'm going, I'm going. Watch her," he commands pointing to Amnesia.

"I don't need a baby-sitter. Why do they call it a baby-sitter? Did people sit on babies while their parents were away when the name was first derived?" Amnesia questions. She doesn't get an answer as Sam walks off and she knows Nat won't humor her questions.

"Why'd you decide to make cookies?" Natasha asks stealing a glob of the dough.

"Why do all of you like food poisoning?" Amnesia counters.

"It's just a little bit," Nat says defensively.

"The docs say I need to be moving around and developing muscle and I wanted to learn something."

"Why don't you read and run on the treadmill or train?"

"Running in place for x amount of time? That seems very boring book or not."

"I guess you're right. Did Tony hook you up with internet access?" Nat asks changing the subject.

"Yeah, that's also why I stepped away, I was starting to get a head-ache."

"Why?" Natasha asks frowning.

"There's so much information, too much to absorb right there. I absorb everything, I like books because they're not electronic and I can't just download the information. Same with movies and other discs, they have to be read before I can soak up their contents."

"That makes sense," Nat says with a nod.

"I just-I just put this in the oven now right?" Amnesia mumbles although she knows she's supposed to. She receives no answer. "I have a theory as to why you don't answer my...primeval questions but I don't want to go peeking into your file looking for confirmation without permission. I think I understand how you feel but I don't want to assume."

"What's your theory?" Natasha asks sharply cutting off Amnesia's ramblings as they begin.

"Saudade," is Amnesia's one word reply which raises Nat's brows as she doesn't know the word. "I believe that I make you miss something..." she elaborates and Natasha closes her eyes and nods knowing what she means. Amnesia gathers that she's right. "Do the others know?"

"Clint knows and so does Bruce...if he's still out there...how'd you find out?"

"A red head interrupted one of Hydra's assassination missions. The target was hit but I recognized you, trained in a school, I figured it'd be protocol. You're closed off and Tony loves to call me a child even though I could knock this tower over with two well aimed kicks. I have moments where I'm an emotionless computer, and I have moments where I'm a seven-year-old girl making chocolate chip cookies for the first time. You answer my questions when I'm a computer."

"Or you just don't like emos," Amnesia adds trying out one of the new "slang" words she found on a site called tumblr along with a band called My Chemical Romance, odd pictures with song lyrics over them, and some guy in black bathrobes and a red "light saber" named either Kylo Ren or Ben Solo, maybe both Amnesia was leaning toward the last option and split personality disorder. It's during this long silence where Natasha wonders what she just said and Amnesia is just contemplating what actually happens on tumblr that Vision walks in.

"Make sure she doesn't burn the place down," Nat commands before making her escape.

* * *

"So what's the deal with you and Amnesia?" Steve asks ducking one of Sam's punches.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you obviously like her and she seems to like you too," Steve says.

"You're worse than Natasha," Sam says.

"At what?" Nat asks distracting both of them but it allows Steve to get one good hit in that has Sam wincing.

"Nothing," Sam replies trying to save himself.

"You and Amnesia?" Nat says. "I think you should ask her out. It'd be good for both of you. I mean we all know you like her."

"Yes, I like her, but I don't think she's ready. I don't know if she'll ever be ready. I mean she's got you pegged as the most untrustworthy person here, even over Stark," Sam says giving Steve a look. "She has lost so much of her life, and she's got some catching up to do, I know she does. It would be good for me, I have no doubt, but I know it won't be good for her. She doesn't like me like that anyways."

"Wait what do you mean I'm untrustworthy?" Steve asks in astonishment blatantly ignoring everything else Sam had said.

Sam sighs and rolls his eyes, figuring that that's what he would care about. "You know that schematic you're always asking her about? She didn't tell me what it was but I gather that it's bad whatever it does, and anyways, she thinks you want to use it and that's why you're questioning her."

"What are you asking about that's got her so frightened?" Nat asks raising an eyebrow at Captain America.

"They wiped Bucky's memory. He didn't know me, she knows how they did it and I'm hoping there's a cure. I think she might be the key to getting him back," Steve explains confidently.

"Well-" Sam begins but is cut off by an explosion.

"What the hell was that?" Sam asks following Nat and Steve as they take off toward the other side of the compound where the explosion came from. They find the site and observe the giant crater in the place of where the kitchen and a few other housing utility rooms used to be. In the center of it is Vision and Amnesia huddled in a yellow bubble.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save the building," Vision says as the bubble fades. They realize Amnesia is out like a light and Sam frowns moving to take her from him.

"Whipped," Nat murmurs and Steve chuckles while Sam shakes his head.

"Was anyone hurt?" Steve asks.

"No, the area was clear," Vision supplies.

"What happened?" Wanda asks joining the group along with a few other nameless personnel including a few doctors.

"You will have to ask Amnesia. I'm afraid I am not entirely sure what just transpired," Vision supplies honestly. They look to where Sam and Amnesia were, only to see empty air.


	4. iv

"Sam calm down, I'm okay. I wasn't prepared for that reaction but I'm glad Vision was," Amnesia says watching as Sam paces at the end of her bed glancing at her from time to time. She's been awake for about ten minutes, in which she told him what happened and he decided he didn't like her answer too much.

"It was reckless," Sam responds protectively, scolding her like she was a child.

"It was Vision, I knew he wouldn't hurt me on purpose. I just saw what he dreams about."

"What does he dream about?" Sam asks pausing in curiosity.

"Weird ass aliens. Now would you calm down?"

"Okay what happened?" Tony Stark yells as he walks into the room not knowing she was awake but hoping she would be, even if he woke her.

"Sorry bub you missed story time," Amnesia states glaring at him.

"You blew up my kitchen I deserve and answer," Tony contradicts and Amnesia rolls her eyes.

"I was making cookies and they were explosively brilliant," she says sarcastically earning a glare from Tony. "I got bored and I touched the mind stone because I was curious, there was a power exchange I wasn't expecting that ended in an explosion, Vision protected us," she summarizes.

"Yeah, he can't make a force field you sure that was him?"

"He had extra power, everyone can do a lot more than they think if they have the energy," Amnesia says. "To give you an idea of how much energy he had, I passed out because I didn't have any.

"Okay, well, no leaving the compound for your date I don't think it'd be smart," Tony says to Sam.

"What date?" Amnesia asks quickly decidedly jealous although she's not quite sure what the feeling is.

"Oh you didn't ask her yet?" Tony says and Sam gives him a warning glare but that doesn't stop Tony. "I heard that Sam was going to take you out on a date," Tony says smugly.

"I think you're lying," she replies not batting an eye. Sam wouldn't take her on a date unless e wanted something, at least that's what she convinced herself.

"Of course you do," Tony says before walking off unaware they were just about to follow.

"She says she touched Vision's mind stone, as she called it and there was an energy exchange and boom. That wonderful little force field you can make but you don't have the energy usually," Tony summarizes for everyone sitting around a table in a different part of the compound.

"Has there been any other incidents?" Tony asks. "Because we might want to move her somewhere more remote where she can't kill fifty people."

"We can't have this conversation without Sam present Tony, he's part of the team," Steve says with a sigh.

"But she is not, I'm not saying we abandon or lock her up, I'm saying we should move her to some island away from everyone," Tony says. "Sam can even go with her."

"And I'm less trustworthy than him?" Steve asks looking at Natasha in disbelief.

"Tony calm down," Rhodes says keeping a level head, prepared to not think as rash as his friend does.

"She's cost a lot in equipment damage, that's not to mention that all the explosions can't just be missed by the public. May I remind you, this is supposed to be a secret base. This isn't X-Men, we can't just rebuild in the same location every time we get blown up."

"We promised to help her and we will," Steve says meeting Tony's angry eyes.

"Who thinks it'd be safer if she was away?" Tony asks raising his hand. Nat raises her hand and Steve looks at her waiting for her to explain herself and trying not to look like a betrayed puppy.

"It would be safer until she gained control of her abilities. Protocol would have had us take her in and put her in lock down anyway and we didn't."

"Because having her sedated and strapped to a hospital bed so people could run tests on her and see if she was quote unquote safe, would not have been good for her," Sam thunders making his presence known.

"Oh look here's loverboy now, come to defend his girlfriend. Speaking of where is she?" Tony says. Rhodes sees a flash of silvery white and assumes she's behind him Sam.

"Tony," Rhodes warns, not for Tony's sake, but for the girl's. He knows her least of all the team but he doesn't want to see something bad happen to her, not after all she's been through. He's been rooting for her you could say. Sam steps aside giving Tony a glare but is taken aback to see she's already gone.

"Where'd she go?" Tony yells.

"She was right behind me," Sam yells in return and Wanda pushes past them unnoticed though she isn't very secretive about it. She hones in on Amnesia's mind though she isn't able to read it and follows her back to her room. Natasha decided to follow a few seconds later but stays quietly behind Wanda, allowing her to talk Amnesia down but close enough to listen without being noticed.

"We're not going to send you away you know," Wanda says watching Amnesia shove a few items into a back pack.

"I know, but I'm beginning to think some day I might have to run. I don't particularly trust Steve that's true, but you all find it odd that I can trust Tony. It's more complicated than that. A dishonest man will be dishonest, that makes Tony predictable. An honest man tells the truth that makes Steve powerful and if the truths are malevolent, extremely unpredictable. I know a lot about Hydra, a lot of terrifying information. He wants that information, and he wants to use it. As for Natasha, you can trust her to look out for herself but never anyone else. She falls back on herself; Sam...I like Sam, he likes me too but I can't be what he needs. Vision will do whatever he sees is best for the entire world, that's what he's programmed to do. Rhodes will side with Tony and you, you're new to the group. Almost as new as me, I think that's why you like me and because of that, unless you're on their side, they're not going to listen to a word you say.

"If something happens...I'll have to go on the run, and trust me when I say this," Amnesia says looking over Wanda's shoulder and meeting Natasha's eyes as she delivers her final statement. "You won't find me again."

* * *

"Guys, Heath Ledger is brilliant," Amnesia murmurs watching the psychopathic clown named Joker "interrogate" a wannabe Batman in the Dark Knight Rises.

"We should get you started on comics," Tony says and Amnesia nods. Things have calmed down between everyone, it has been two weeks and the replacement kitchen has been built along with newer, better replacements of what was also destroyed. Tony apologized for what he said and everything was a bit more normal than before although Amnesia had taken to calling Tony out for not sleeping. Between forget-me-not, as he'd decided to call Amnesia, and Pepper, he had no sanctuary from people nagging him about sleep. They were friends in the loosest of terms.

Tony had also taken step to reach out to Amnesia in an unspoken apology. After all, he was the only one that could safely hep her manage her affinity for energy without blowing all the lights in the compound. She in return helped him with projects, outsmarting him almost all the time. They spent a decent amount of time together and Sam was starting to get jealous though he'd never admit that. Amnesia was beginning to realize that although she still spent a good hunk of her day with him, she missed Sam.

"We need more popcorn," Tony says looking at Amnesia expectantly.

"You're a big boy, get it yourself," she replies but unfortunately, she had to get up anyways to put her book back and grab a different one or something else to occupy her busy mind.

"Thank you," Tony calls out smugly as she takes the bowl and heads for the kitchen. She pauses before she steps into the kitchen as she hears Steve talking to whom she doesn't know quite yet.

"She knows what they did to him. She might be able to help us find him. Then we can fix him and get him back into shape," Steve says and Amnesia knows they're talking about her James. She was right. They want him back, and they're just going to keep torturing him.

"All right, I'll see what she knows," the person Steve was talking to says and Amnesia's heart breaks. The only person in the compound that she fully trusted just agreed to help the person trying to hurt her. The person was Sam Wilson.

"Thank you and maybe you could, I don't know, finally get the nerve and just ask her out already? I mean, you're worse than I am." The captain says and Amnesia decides she needs to make the popcorn and carry on as usual before she makes her next move. "There she is, just who we were talking about," Steve says merrily when he sees her step into the kitchen.

"Hey, do you know where the popcorn is?" She asks looking into the cupboards, not ready to even attempt to look at Sam doesn't know if she'll be able to without causing anomalies in the electricity.

"Uhm, right here," Sam says reaching for a cupboard behind her and standing closer to her than people that are not involved with each other do.

"Thanks," she mumbles taking an awkward step away from him and to the microwave, ignoring the contact that came with their arms brushing.

"What's wrong?" Sam asks picking up on her mood way too easily.

"Nothing I uh found out Heath Ledger is dead and I'm just disappointed because he made a fantastic Joker," Amnesia lies finding it surprisingly easy to lie to a person pretending to be a friend.

"Yeah, he was. Are you and Tony watching the Dark Knight Rises," Sam agrees as Amnesia puts the popcorn in the microwave, nodding to answer Sam's question. "Would you like to go out tonight? Like on a date?" He asks hoping he hides his nervousness and trying to ignore Steve giving him two thumbs up behind Amnesia's back. She wants to say no and go to her room and mourn the loos of a friend but she knows she can't. They started a game of cat and mouse, and she decided she would be the wolf.

"Love to," Amnesia says deciding it would make or break her stay here.

* * *

An hour before they're set to leave, Amnesia hides her backpack in the back of Sam's car after hearing that they're going to some restaurant away from the compound.


	5. V

"Lose the jacket," Wanda commands a Amnesia shows her her outfit selection for her date.

"I'm wearing the jacket. I love jackets," Amnesia replies.

"What if you go somewhere fancy?"

"He won't take me somewhere fancy because this is my first time going out somewhere that's not a store."

"Fine but you don't look very girly," Wanda says with a sigh.

"Have you seen my shirt?" She asks showing the very girly, floral blouse she has under her leather jacket. "I think I look good."

"You look fine, now go, Sam's waiting," Natasha says appearing in the doorway.

"Thank you!" Amnesia says giving Wanda an exasperated look. "I looked fine a half an hour ago too," Amnesia complains, walking out of the room and towards the garage where Sam told her to meet him earlier.

When Sam sees her he smiles. She honestly looks beautiful. Dressed in black combat boots, dark skinny jeans, a navy and purple floral blouse and a black biker leather jacket, she looks ready to kill. Wanda helped her with her eyeliner and lipstick but other than that she was all natural with her slightly wavy platinum/silver hair, purple eyes and pale complexion. She looks like a different person in Sam's eyes, after only seeing her in sweatpants and giant jumpers. Sam himself stuck to what he knew and wore his jacket, a long sleeve shirt, jeans and his lucky pair of sneakers. He wasn't much for superstition but he felt he might need it tonight.

"You look amazing," Sam compliments and Amnesia smiles and murmurs a thank you. "Are you ready?" He asks holding out a hand she smiles a small smile and takes it. He gives her a nod that's supposed to inspire confidence and then they both get in Sam's car and are soon on their way to a retro diner nearby. He knew they could go anywhere else but Sam had a feeling she'd prefer a nameless diner over a big name franchise. He watched her observe the diner with curiosity.

"This is just like Supernatural and that one book I read," she murmurs and Sam chuckles, a wide grin settling on his face.

"Well come on then, let's go see if they've got pie," Sam says, naturally taking her hand when she meets him at the front of the car and leading her into the diner accompanied by the same smile.

* * *

"So I talked to Steve," Sam begins. "He thinks you know about his friend. What they did to him."

"Sam Wilson. You are my friend. Friends protect each other isn't that right?" Amnesia begins and Sam nods, answering her question wondering where she's going with it. "James Buchanan Barnes was destroyed. He was turned into a weapon and will no doubt be sent on the same path as before if people know too much. If you're my friend, you'll trust me."

"That's the thing Amn, you haven't even told me what's so bad. I need you to trust me too okay?" Amnesia looks back down at her food, her jaw clenched. The waffle loaded with chocolate and marshmallows doesn't seem so appetizing anymore. She plays with her food for a moment, deciding what she's going to do now. Amnesia realized that Sam's loyalties are with Steve, and probably always will be, no matter what she says.

"Hydra has a machine, a machine very easily found but not easily used. To operate it you need a schematic, a schematic only I have. With the schematic you can wipe a person's brain clean. Who they are, what they stand for, all wiped away leaving a blank slate. Without the schematic you're left brain dead, with the schematic you can pick and choose what stays in their brain, ie, how to work a gun, how to follow orders, who's orders to follow. Zola made James into a super soldier, then wiped away any traces of who he once was. James Buchanan Barnes became Hydra's favorite weapon.

"He was in so much pain and it was my fault. I will not allow him to be dragged back into this mess. Wiped and fired again and again. When I found out what they were doing, how they were using me, I reached into every mind in the base and I wiped it just like they did to my James. He almost got away, but I wasn't fast enough. This time though, I'll be getting away," Amnesia says meeting Sam's confused eyes and stealing every trace of her from his mind. His forehead creases as he gains the worst headache of his life and then it's gone.

"Uhm sorry, I completely zoned out, what's happening right now?" Sam asks not understanding what has happened in the last hour or so of his life. Amnesia makes an indignant sound and takes her water and dumps it on him because that's what the girls in the movies do and she needs to make an exit.

"You jerk! I never want to see you again!" She yells before storming out of the restaurant. She grabs her bag from the back of the car and then realizes she's got nowhere to go. She calls three different taxis just to screw with Tony if he manages to somehow track her calls and then when the first shows up, she asks to be taken to the nearest airport. Her next move was actually very simple, find James.

* * *

Okay maybe not that simple. After another month of traveling and always looking over her shoulder, she had only a few flimsy leads and that was with the use of her super hacking skills at various times and paces and sources. The lead she was currently following though was definitely the most promising and in Romania, what Tony concluded to be her homeland. Amnesia had no doubt it was empty and there'd be no homey feel to it, but she wanted to go there at least once almost as much as she wanted to find James.

They were searching for her, and Sam was confused. He didn't remember her and she was certain of that. Perhaps making him forget her wasn't one of her finer ideas as it would put the avengers on defense, but she knew she had to leave and she didn't want him to miss her. At least that's what she told herself.

Amnesia ended up in a small airport in Bucharest. All she had was a duffel bag, and hopefully a lot of money, she wasn't exactly sure if what she got from the ATM was a lot but there were plenty of bills. She didn't really understand currency that well but she was on her way there.

"Have you seen a guy that looks just like this?" Amnesia asks a merchant outside the airport.

"Uhm I think so. He came by two/three days ago. Bought some plums. Nice guy, kept to himself. Is he in trouble?" The kind man replies and Amnesia's eyes light up with hope.

"Not from me. He's an old friend and people are looking for him. I'm worried," Amnesia says sincerely. He observes her then nods.

"The building is two blocks down, the old one next to the garage," he says. "Tell him he is lucky to have such a beautiful woman looking after him."

"Thank you," Amnesia replies, before heading off in the direction he pointed in, holding tightly to the picture she printed off of James.

She sees a guy in a baseball cap sitting on a bench near the building the merchant described. He's wearing long sleeves and his hair is shaggy. She can't see his face but she knows it's him. She hesitates but finally gathers up the nerve and sits down next to him. He immediately stiffens.

"Calm down sweetheart, I'm in the same boat as you." Amnesia murmurs. "My name's Amnesia. I already know you. You were James Buchanan Barnes until Zola got his hands on you. He remade you, and somewhere along the line, they wiped you. I can help you if you let me."

"Who are you?" He asks.

"I used to be Hydra's hard drive. I was experimented on by Zola when I was very little. I was their lab rat for all my life. I know practically all of Hydra's secrets. Trust me James. I've been looking out for you a long time," Amnesia says.

"What do you mean? That you've been helping me?"

"When they would wipe you, they took your memories and thought they destroyed them. I saved them, and I can give them back to you, but I won't unless you're ready and you want me to."

"Why should I trust you?" James asks and Amnesia pauses truly wondering why.

"I don't know," she finally says. "But, there's no reason not to trust me either."

"You leave in the morning," he says stiffly getting up from the bench. Amnesia nods realizing this is all she's going to get.

"What were you reading?" She asks following him back to his apartment.

"None of your business."

"Then you weren't reading," she concludes and James gives her a glare.

"Why do you know so much about me?"

"They kept all your information right here," Amnesia replies pointing to her head. "Apparently Hydra collapsed and most of their information was released online. It's why no one's been looking for you except the avengers."

"What do you know about them?" He cuts her off, remembering that Steve is one of them.

"I know that they want to find you and I think they want to use you. They were very adamant about getting the information in my head. The information on you."

"Did you meet Steve?"

"Yeah."

"Was-was he okay?"

"He's the United States's golden boy. He was fine," Amnesia replies then raises her hand. "Do you trust me?" She asks and he gives a slight nod so she connects her hand to his cheek and gives him as many childhood memories of his that she has before she starts feeling faint. She pulls her hand away after reliving a young James fighting a few bullies off a very small and weak Steve Rogers. Her eyelids flutter and she mentally berates herself for overdoing herself before she promptly faints. James blinks, bewildered by the exchange then notices Amnesia is swaying unhealthily. He catches her just as she's about to fall, then sweeps her into his arms and carries her inside.

He remembers her from his time in Hydra. A long time ago he was positioned in a base with a girl hooked up to multiple machines. The last day he was at the base, everyone there fell to the ground in immense pain. When they finally got up, they had no recollection of where they were or why they were there. He had been able to walk right out but she stopped him. He wanted to save her, and now here she is, trying to save him. He sets Amnesia down on the hard mattress he calls his bed and recalls the memory she gave him of one of the multiple times he pulled someone off of Steve.

 _"Stop being a hero Buck, I had him this time,"_ Steve said and James laughed, remembering the black eye he had gotten the next day. Steve was always getting himself into fights and Bucky was always there to help him out. Perhaps that's what she's trying to do, save him when he's too far over his head.


	6. vi

"Where's Nesia?" Tony asks when Sam returns to the compound from their date.

"Who?" Sam asks confused. "When'd you get here? I thought you were staying in the city for a while?"

"I've been here a week Birdy. Now quit playing around, I need Forget-Me-Not's help with something," Tony says, impressed Sam could keep a joke going so long, and saddened by the fact that it isn't a good joke either.

"I don't know who you're talking about. But have you seen Steve? Something weird just happened to me. You wouldn't believe it. I was enjoying my food at that diner and then next thing I know it, some hot psycho chick is dumping a glass of water on me then storming off. I don't remember seeing her ever in my life," Sam says giving Tony a weird look and walking away. Tony frowns then goes to find Steve. Something's wrong and he's not quite sure what.

"Something's wrong," Tony says without introduction, storming into the training area where Steve and Wanda are working.

"Would you care to elaborate?" Steve asks pausing from training. Wanda glares at him but doesn't say anything.

"Sam's back, without his kid girlfriend and doesn't seem to know who she is," Tony says and Steve frowns. "He was looking for you though, you should figure out what's going on."

"What do you mean?" Steve asks.

"He didn't even recognize her name and I assume she's the hot psycho chick he was referring to," Tony says.

"I'll talk to him," Steve says not worried about the current predicament. It wasn't a secret that Sam and Tony didn't necessarily get along too well.

* * *

"Sam there you are, what's up? Why's your shirt wet? Is it raining out?" Steve asks confused as the wet spot, although faint, is pretty obvious and nothing like rain.

"No, it's not. I don't know what happened. Just when I think the world isn't so crazy," Sam replies with a sigh. Steve sits down next to him and fills up his glass with the bottle of jack sitting on the new dining room table in front of him. He does this against his better judgement as he knows he'll need the Falcon sharp, but as a friend? Sam needs all the help he can get. "I was enjoying my food at that diner we go to every once in a while and just out of nowhere is this lady. She was like 5'6", white hair, purple eyes, super pale and thin. Then she starts yelling at me and calling me a jerk before she dumped water all over me. I don't even remember her walking into the diner and I'm telling you I would've noticed."

"Did you see her leave? How'd she get away?"

"Rode off with some biker guy. I didn't follow."

"Did you get his plates?"

"Of course not, she didn't seem dangerous or anything," Sam replies filing his glass up again, meeting Steve's eyes when he puts a hand on the bottle stopping him from pouring. "5ZSA5Z," Sam says with a sigh. Gaining information like that, after only training for a few month, was as easy as breathing.

"Thanks."

"Steve," Sam calls out stopping him. "You know her? Why's it such a big deal?"

"You really don't remember anything?" He asks looking back at him from the door.

"What's there to remember?"

* * *

James Buchanan Barnes sits at the table in his apartment writing in his journal, adamant the memories he has will never be taken from him again. Today he writes about a white haired girl returning his memories to him. Speaking of, every once in a while, Bucky looks up from his messy journal and to the mattress lying in the corner where Amnesia rests. Ever since she restored some of his memories, she's been out, regaining energy slowly but surely.

For a while, he was convinced she was someone else entirely. He couldn't believe this was the same girl he had seen on the hospital bed. That girl was frail and dying. The girl before him was a phoenix, rising from her ashes ready to begin anew. She was pretty, alarmingly so. He'd even go so far as to call her a china doll. His mind looped back to why in the world she had chosen to find him and help him clear up the mess inside his brain.

"No, Sam," Amnesia murmurs in her sleep, her fists opening and closing like she's reaching for something. She's starting to wake up, but right now she's stuck on the images she saw in Sam's head. "Don't hurt him," she murmurs and Bucky frowns seeing her hair start to stick up like static electricity. A glance at his reflection in the window shows his is doing the same. He walks over and shakes Amnesia awake, he needs to leave, something weird is happening and he needs to take her with. When she wakes up though, their hair drops.

"We need to go, something's not right," he says helping her to her feet, noticing how shaky she is.

"What happened?" She asks her eyes wide.

"Something's up with the electricity or something," he states, grabbing his back pack and checking out the window to see if they've got company. "I don't see anyone."

"It's okay I trust you," Amnesia says but she's got no clue what's going on. He gives her a nod and leads her through the bathroom window onto a rusty fire escape. From there they hit the street, Bucky's hat on and he looks briefly at Amnesia who's appearance hasn't changed a bit since he met her and decided he'd need to get her a hat or something to help hide her face next time he could. He leads her to the other side of town to another apartment he had staked out. He doesn't want to leave quite so soon as there might not be anyone on his tail, but he didn't stay off the radar so long by not being cautious.

"What were you dreaming about?" Bucky asks watching Amnesia catch her breath.

"This guy. I thought he was my friend. He wasn't who I thought he was. You woke me up," she replies and he nods waiting for her to continue. "You could've just left me there. Do you trust me?"

"I remember you. I tried to save you."

"What?"

"Something went wrong. All of my handlers were confused and out of it...I made for the door. I saw you on my way out. Hooked up to several machines, I was at the base because someone was closing in on them and they wanted to make sure they kept their hands on you. I managed to get you out of the room before they came to their senses. I was going to try again but they moved me and shut down the base. I figured they moved you too."

"You weren't supposed to save me. You were supposed to run," Amnesia mutters accusing him with her eyes.

"There was a beautiful girl who needed my help, what was I supposed to do? Besides, from what you've shown me, and if you're not lying, which I doubt you are, you've been as you said, looking out for me a long time." Amnesia only nods.

"I'll be back, I'm going to go get food," he says and Amnesia catches his hand before he gets too far away. He waits as she pulls a wad of cash from her pockets then hands it to him. He raises an eyebrow but doesn't say anything, electing instead to go get that food.

He wasn't what Amnesia expected. He wasn't some omniscient general that knew exactly what to do and when to do it. He was terribly broken, but he didn't show it. Amnesia thought she'd be able to show up and fix him, but at the moment, she didn't know what there was to fix. She reminds herself of the pain he went through, the weeks he spent being conditioned and turned into a cold unfeeling weapon.

He remembered her. She was the reason he didn't get out of there. How could she be the reason he got caught up when he didn't even know about her? The route he would've taken to get out of the compound would have taken him around the room she was kept it if he was to get out of there as fast as possible. Not to mention there were several people working in the same room she was kept in and she knows he wouldn't have risked getting caught like that. James did not know of her existence. She was certain of it. She saw inside his mind and she was never in it, in all the times they wiped him.

He couldn't know her.

* * *

The thoughts kept her up all night. She told Bucky to go to sleep seeing as the apartment only held one "bed" and she doubted they'd want to do the whole 'oh no there's only one bed. I guess we could share it' sort of thing that happened in the online stories called fanfictions that she stumbled upon once while browsing the internet. She got very confused after stumbling upon the word destiel and then decided to not go through anymore fanfictions.

Instead she sat at the wooden table and stared off into space. Her fingers tapped lightly on the table, the small noise which lured Bucky into sleep although it would have normally kept him up all night. The more she tapped, the crisper the air seemed. She hardly noticed her hair rising as she projected the static into the air. All at once she stopped and stood up, walking to the window. She felt restless. She had grown accustomed to moving in the weeks she spent looking for Bucky, and after staying still for what seemed like millenia, she wanted to move as much as possible.

When Bucky started tossing and turning, restless in his sleep she walked over to the mattress frowning wondering what she's supposed to do. Does she wake him? Does she zap him? Does she drain him of energy or...? She decides she should probably just drain him of energy so he stops flailing around and raises a hand to set it on his shoulder and he snatches her wrist out of the air and she freezes hoping he doesn't break her wrist or something after making sure he's still asleep. She sits down seeing as she's going nowhere anytime soon. With her free hand she cautiously sweeps his hair out of his face so she's not caught off-guard when he wakes.

She keeps stroking his hair, her hand grazing the side of his face lightly and eventually he lets go of her wrist. She continues the soothing action though and wonders why he trusts her so.

"Sorry, you were having a nightmare and..." Amnesia trailed off when she noticed her soldier was awake.

"I-it's okay doll," he says and she smiles while Bucky has a bad boy smirk stitched onto his face due to an old habit he had been rid of during his time at Hydra. "Why do you protect me? I'm a killer, you should stop me in any way you can," he asks thinking of his dream, or one of his dreams, it's always one of his victims, the life draining from their eyes and then they speak and blame him, accuse him, haunt him in all the most painful ways.

"You're my soldier. I'm tired," she adds. Bucky frowns knowing there's more to it than that but he lets it slide albeit reluctantly.

"Go to sleep, this time let me watch over you."


	7. vii

"I don't think you should spend so much time in the library," Bucky says when Amnesia walks through the door of their flat.

"Why not?" She asks with a frown. They've spent a week in this new apartment. Bucky keeps them moving around the city often enough. He wants to head elsewhere but Amnesia keeps them there as there's a concert from some band coming soon and she wants to experience it. Although he knows it's stupid, he has been unable to say no to her when she asks for something. He's wrapped around her finger and she doesn't even realize it.

"There's too many cameras and sometime they might get lucky," he murmurs. "What if they come for you and I'm not there?"

"Don't worry James, I short circuit the cameras whenever I'm there. I just have to avoid people, and I do. I'm not entirely helpless. Though I admit sometimes the door is hard to open but it's a heavy door and I still have the muscle mass of a five year old."

"I'm going to start training you then. At least you'll be able to put up a fight."

"What makes you think I can't already?" She challenges him.

"You have the muscle mass of a five year old," he repeats her. "Come on doll, you know what's out there. Don't you want to be able to defend yourself if it comes down to it?"

"James, I could have killed you the moment I stepped into this room. Trust me, I'll be fine."

"How? You're not hooked up to the system anymore," he says and Amnesia glares at him before understanding.

"I never told you did I?" She asks herself and Bucky furrows his eyebrows wondering what she didn't tell him.

"I can channel energy and release it thanks to our dear friend Dr Zola," she said then to prove her point she turned their table into another liechtenberg figure. He looks down at the table and closes his eyes. All that static in the air was from her. He frowns and backs away, a hand going to rub his temples.

"I'm going out."

"James, did I do something wrong? I'm sorry," she says and he turns and shakes his head before leaving. Amnesia thinks of the worse and sits down in the single chair remaining at the table, waiting for her soldier to return.

She waits a total of thirty minutes. He's not going to come back. Why would he come back to a monster. She was the key to his torment, why in the world would he come back to her? He put some tip out to the authorities though. They'd be there soon no doubt. As the thoughts of her doom take shape in her head, Amnesia starts to move, packs a duffle bag with her stuff which isn't much at all and heads out the door with the belief that Hydra is coming for her. She misses Sam. Sam would tell her everything is all right and what was really going on.

Without even noticing, she drains the power from the entire block, her eyes glowing white showing the energy she's absorbed. She walks away from the city, headed to the ratty suburbs. She'd head the other way on a normal day. Amnesia isn't paying attention and crosses into the yard of an unfamiliar dog without knowing. The dog attacks, seeing a stranger giving off an even stranger aura and attacks. Amnesia gets knocked to the ground and releases a bunch of energy into the dog as a reflex. The dog falls dead on top of her and she starts to shake, trembling at the sight of the dead dog. She pushes it off her and stands up, her eyes wide and muscles aching. She stares at her hands and calls herself a villain before running off like the devil is at her heels.

* * *

Amnesia jumps awake after having fallen asleep maybe half an hour ago. She found and abandoned building that looked extremely unstable after the dog incident. Trusting her instincts, she chose to settle here deciding that no one would come looking as it looks like it'll topple over if you breathed on it just right. She wasn't tired though. With all the energy coursing through her still, she couldn't see herself falling asleep for a while so it's been a little more than ten hours since she last saw Bucky and right now she wishes he was there. She could talk to him and he would ease her boredom.

She fell into a light sleep being too bored to do anything else but at the creak of someone moving she was up and ready to bring the building down with one well-aimed, albeit weak, hit to the wall behind her. She hears another sound and her fist goes flying, hitting the wall and splintering the piece of wood holding it together. The rotted piece of wood breaks, bringing the rafter above her down, and that rafter of course was what held the entire roof up. Her eyes widen realizing the roof is going to go crashing down on her too a tad too late. She screams and then notices the guy in the shadows lunging for her. He causes her to scream even louder. He shushes her and grabs onto her breaking the partially broken wall and exiting through it as the roof comes down.

She's about to zap him but recognizes his blue eyes and his voice mumbling unintelligible words. She stares at him, wondering why she saved him. _I've got to be alive if he's going to trade me in_ she decides and pushes him away but only manages to put him at arms length, his hands placed on her hips to keep her close.

"I thought they got you," James says quietly.

"I thought you got them. You were turning me in," she states and he shakes his head and hugs her.

"Not you doll," she leans her head into his chest, projecting what happened with the dog earlier.

"You should, I'm a monster James."

"I've done worse Nes. And with all the shit in my head, even I can figure out that they're the monsters," he mumbles and she just shakes her head. She's knows his head count, she's stored his file for a while. She knows what he means by worse, but she knows she could top that in an instant. She could destroy the world and no one could stop her. "Do you want to know why I trust you? Your eyes are just like my mother's. They didn't change mind you, but you have the same eyes as her. Creepy, but I knew your eyes and they were like home for me Doll, before I even knew I had one."

"You kept fighting for your people," Amnesia mumbles. "Back when they would wipe you. I couldn't leave you with anything, but you found a way. You kept fighting for the good guys while the bad guys held your strings. I needed to help you. You were my soldier."

"You're my home."

* * *

"Five more," James calls out as he mixes the dough for chocolate chip cookies.

"But-I-al-ready-did-five!" Amnesia yells/pants as she continues to do her push ups. Bucky has been training her for the past week after an argument about her powers being too obvious if some average hoodlum was to attack her on the street so despite Amnesia's reluctance to train with anyone except Sam, she accepted his help, and has since gotten an army brat's treatment.

"You'll do five more if you don't get lower," he says smugly, sticking a glob of cookie dough in his mouth.

"Not you too!" She yells catching him in the action.

"You can have some when you're done," he says not knowing the real reason she was protesting his thievery.

"The eggs will make you sick!"

"Never have before. Come on you've got two left."

Amnesia finishes and collapses on the hard wooden floor. She catches her breath then get up and walks over to the small excuse for a kitchen to take the bowl from Bucky. He scowls as she does so then goes to the tray she bought and starts putting the dough on the tray like she was going to before Bucky gave her the push up assignment. He figured out very quickly he couldn't keep her focused on a single task for longer than two-three minutes depending on the difficulty and decided random exercises at random times will keep her improving and if he keeps her mind busy as she does them, get solid results. He's gotten her to the point where she can throw a solid punch which could in turn buy her time to get away but he's not stopping there.

As for Amnesia, she deciding that after she hadn't been able to taste her cookies the last time she made them due to an explosion that destroyed half of the compound, she'd make more despite the inconvenience gaining all of the supplies would be. She decided in the end though, that the smile it put on her James's face was worth it. She glanced up at him as he wrote in his journal. The journal broke her heart but she understood his reasons for keeping it. In the spiral notebook Bucky kept were documents of his days, descriptions of memories, any blip of information that pertained to who he is. Even though Amnesia doesn't think it's possible, Bucky doesn't want to lose his memories ever again.

"Hey James?"

"Hmm?"

"Tomorrow when I go to the library I'm going to order a few things online, where should I have them dropped off?" Amnesia asks cautiously once her thoughts bring her to music.

"You shouldn't."

"I promise I'll be careful, the only real information I'd give them is an address and it won't even be ours."

"I don't think it's a good idea."

"Please? It's just a record player? And a few records of course. I thought you might like it..." she trails off letting him catch on to her idea and he realizes she's trying to give him a piece of what he had, music and a pretty girl to dance with. He sighs and spouts off an address of the best apartment building in the city aware he'll have to look out for deliveries there until he knows the schedule. "Thank you," she says with a wide smile and he smirks realizing she's got him wrapped around her finger. "What?" Amnesia asks hearing his quiet chuckle.

"Nothing, 'Nes, just laughing at myself," he tells her, returning to his writing as she slips the tray into the oven, knowing the rest won't fit and she'll have to wait. She watches him drag the pen across the paper, fascinated by the smooth movement.

"Did you know calligraphy technically dates all the way back to the stone age? A lot of historians don't count it though because people at the time mostly conveyed with pictures but calligraphy by definition is a written art form so if pictures were the language, calligraphy could be used to describe the fancy stuff. Hannibal Lecter had good handwriting," Amnesia starts to spout off her thoughts and Bucky smiles at the habit he's noticed she doesn't realize she has. Some, well, many, would find it annoying but he finds it in a word, adorable. It reminds him of a childlike innocence, and the days when he'd run home and tell his mother that Pluto isn't actually a planet like she didn't already know.

"Do I have good handwriting?"

"I don't know," she tells him and he frowns in confusion. "I don't read what you write. They made me pick you apart, I know almost everything about you James, and what's in that journal, is what you see everyday. You shouldn't know everything about a person. It's an invasion of privacy. I won't do it again." He remains unmoving for the duration of her explanation. Still as a statue, pen poised to continue writing. When she finishes he moves so quickly that he startles her but he's holding her tightly before she can jump.

She's just as broken as him. She too was a weapon, only perhaps with an even more diabolical purpose. She was gun. He thought he was, but now he knows she was, and he was merely the bullets. Without the gun, Hydra couldn't shoot. He could hate her, because without her, he could've escaped a lifetime of torment, but he knows she had no choice. She was the hero, trying to save him, because without the bullets, a gun is as useful as a paperweight.

"Can I tell you what I write about?" He asks quietly, his mouth near her ear. Amnesia's mind is running rampant, focusing on his words, the heat given off by the winter soldier, which is higher than any normal person, well any normal healthy person, the parodox of his name the winter soldier when he runs about 102 easily, his metal arm which is polar opposite of his body and quite cold, but mostly she focuses on his scent because he doesn't smell like the shower gel she got him and he really needs to take a shower but she doesn't care about that too much honestly.

"I write about what I don't want to forget. Most of the time, that's you."

 **AN: if anyone has a link to view Civil War with and wants to send it to me that'd be cool 'cause I'm starting to get to where the movie ties in and I'm a sucker for accuracy and I don't want to wait for it to come out on DVD. Anyways, thanks for all the reviews, I read them all, and thanks for following/favoriting all that jazz.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel, if I did Clint Barton's shield would not be made of quicksilver but I do not so c'est la vie**


	8. viii

"It's all right James. I took the cameras out before we stepped in the room and covered this one with a sticky note just in case," Amnesia says before she goes clicking away on the terribly slow computer.

"I just worry," he murmurs.

"I know."

He walks away keeping his head down, looking at books, scouting for anyone out of the ordinary. Anyone would think they were doing something dangerous not buying music on the internet. Amnesia is just about to get off of the computer but she wants to know what's going on back at the compound. She hasn't looked since she left. She does some more clicking, loops the signal through a few different servers on the other side of the world and just makes herself impossible to track before hacking into their security. She's confronted by audio of Sam confronting a breach of their perimeter. She's worried immediately and pulls up visual. There's a guy that can shrink down the the size of an ant, and he's completely kicking Sam's ass.

"Well, I guess they're doing fine," she murmurs in the midst of the fight though her heart is in her throat with worry.

"What?" Bucky asks walking back to where Amnesia is situated. "What'd you do?"

"Hacked into the Avenger's security footage," Amnesia murmurs. "That's Sam," she explains pointing to the guy being thrown around by what seems like nothing. Before the ant-guy takes off leaving Sam an embarrassed but unharmed mess. Amnesia can't help but breath a sigh of relief.

"What's attacking him? An ant?"

"Pretty much. I think you'd like Sam though. He's a good guy," she says and Bucky is immediately hit by jealousy though he knows it's completely unwarranted. "I hope he's okay," she says watching Sam lie in the middle of the grass, anxious to make sure Steve doesn't find out about the ant that beat him up. Bucky decides maybe his jealousy isn't completely unwarranted when he sees how worried she is. He gets even more jealous when he notices the zaps of light coming from her fingers, that happens when she's nervous and oh Bucky knows it. He rubs his forearm where he last experienced those tiny volts absent mindedly as he asks his next question:

"Do you...do you like him?"

"It's...complicated."

Bucky decides then and there, he doesn't like this Sam guy.

* * *

"Panic! at the Disco, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sheeran, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Disney instramentals, or Christmas classics?" Amnesia asks spreading out the vinyls she ordered as Bucky sets up their new turntable.

"I don't recognize any of those. Well I know Disney," Bucky grumbles. "Seems childish though."

"Ed Sheeran," Amnesia decides before opening the plastic wrap on that one. Once its set up, he shows her how to turn it on and soon enough they're listening to the smooth voice of Ed Sheeran, Amnesia's face lit with fascination as the platter spins.

"Come on," Bucky says grabbing her hand and pulling her gently to her feet. "And you put your hand here, I'll put mine here, and follow my lead okay?" Bucky instructs, teaching her how to dance. "Distracted?" He asks as the song changes watching her frown in frustration.

"All I can think about is you." She tells him honestly, her frown more prominent and absolutely adorable in Bucky's eyes. It's a concentrated sort of frown, and he realizes how much more focused she is than usual. He's got all of her attention and that is a very, very hard thing to do.

"No wonder you can't remember the dances I'm sure you looked up. Could it be the tables have turned and now it's me, causing you to forget?" He teases, Amnesia blushes and hides her face in his chest, a feeling he finds he enjoys very much.

"I don't like this song a lot," she murmurs and Bucky's chest vibrates as he laughs at her poor attempt to change the subject.

"Then it'll be easier to focus on me," he says, amused.

"Such a charmer."

"I know doll, now I step here, and you step there, one more, now we turn, step, step," Bucky carries on teaching her how to dance, and navigating them in a small circle. "I'm going to spin you now are you ready? Okay and spin, very good." They keep dancing, barely aware of the music playing, more wrapped up in each other, pausing briefly to switch the vinyl to the other side. Bucky remembers going out dancing with random girls and taking the most attractive one home. Steve was always there too, he didn't talk to girls much though. The girls never mattered to him, not even the ones he went on dates with. He wanted them to, but they didn't. The girl he's holding now, she matters and he wants to know what it'd be like to kiss her. If it'd be different kissing the only girl that matters than the others. He'd never though. He'd scare her away and she'd think he's a monster most certainly.

"James?"

"Hmm?"

"I just want you to know, I'm pretty sure I love you. Well, I do, love you that is. I'm not pretty sure, I know," Amnesia rambles.

"I love you too," he says stopping her from doubting herself or him. They continue dancing silently and Amnesia is thinking about switching the record but "Lego House" comes on and she heard that one before and likes it.

"Tell me to stop," Bucky suddenly says tearing Amnesia away from her thoughts, instead focusing on his blue eyes, watching as they flicker to her lips. She's aware of his hand lightly on her chin, guiding her lips to his.

* * *

Amnesia points to the plums and looks to Bucky asking the silent question he nods and picks two up slipping the vendor payment. He puts them in his pocket and laces their fingers together. Ever since the turntable came in, they've almost always been in contact with one another. Amnesia noticed almost immediately but didn't see a problem in it, whereas Bucky noticed a few days after and tried to rationalize it and got a little paranoid about it.

He chalked most of it up to being a Hydra habit, if he's near her, he can protect her like he did on some missions to other Hydra officials. In public, Amnesia likes it so she can communicate silently. Bucky wouldn't admit it but he liked having her there to anchor him. If he started to think too much as he's had to ever since Hydra screwed him, he's reminded he's out of there with every twitch of her fingers, or brush of her hair.

Bucky stiffens as he scans the area because he picks up on a guy staring at him like he recognizes him. The man takes off running and Bucky leads Amnesia across the street and to the paper. On the front page is Bucky's picture and something about blowing up some big-whig meeting.

They share a look and take off back to their flat.

* * *

"What do we do? Where do we go? They found us James!"

"No, they found me. We're splitting up. I'll lead them off, and then meet up with you," Bucky says calmly his hands on either side of Amnesia's face, forcing her to look at him.

"We will not split up, I will fry anyone that tries to do so," she says firmly catching his wrist when he tries to nudge her away.

"They'll be checking airports, we'll need to get a car," he says after kissing her forehead like she's his most treasured possession, because to him, she is. He's not stupid enough to let anyone know that though. It'd only put her in more danger, and he is afraid she doesn't feel the same way. Amnesia nods barely hearing him. Her brain goes a bit fuzzy every time he does something romantic. She's working on that. "Pack your stuff."

She pecks him on the lips. "Done," she says. "Anything I would take with me would only slow us down," she explains and he nods. Suddenly their door is thrown open and Bucky pushes Amnesia behind him, raising a finger to his lips, telling her silently to be quiet.

Steve Rogers looks over the dingy flat, frowning as he takes in the signs of two people living in the space. This couldn't be Bucky's place is his only thought. He remembered how messed up his friend was when he last saw him. He'd isolate himself no doubt, and this doesn't look like isolated. He walks over to the fridge and finds Bucky's journal, as he's distracted, Bucky leads Amnesia closer to the door, silently as possible. Someone says something over the comm and Steve replies with an understood, turning and seeing Bucky hiding Amnesia behind him. She surprises him. Out of all the people here, he least expected it to be her.

"You know me?" He asks Bucky.

"You're Steve, I read about you in a museum," Bucky says and Amnesia looks at him wondering why he doesn't tell the truth.

"i know you're nervous, both of you, and you have plenty of reason to be," Steve says giving Amnesia a hard look that she matches. "But you're lying."

"I wasn't in Vienna," Bucky says. "No, I don't do that anymore."

"Well, the people that think you did, are coming here now, and they're not planing on taking you alive."

"They won't touch him," Amnesia growls, speaking for the first time.

"Thi doesn't have to end in a fight," Steve says.

"It always ends in a fight," Bucky says giving Amnesia's hand a reassuring squeeze before letting go and taking off the glove that hides his metal arm.

"You pulled me from the river. Why?"

"I don't know," Bucky says truthfully.

"Yes you do."

Suddenly a flash bomb is tossed in through the window and Steve knocks it aside with his shield throwing the rest of them into action. Two members come in through the windows while the others work on the door. Amnesia makes quick work of the closest one to her, touching him and draining him of energy while Steve knocks out the other. Buck flies across the room to the other guy hitting him alarmingly hard. Steve grabs his fist.

"Stop Buck, you're going to kill someone," he says and Bucky pushes him down, punching through the floor and grabbing the "go" bag they had set up.

"I'm not going to kill anyone," he says softly and Amnesia glares at Steve for bringing up that sore subject.

"You too," Steve commands Amnesia.

"He's passed out, he'll wake up in twelve hours feeling better than yours," she mutters, staying close to her soldier. Another wave hits and they all duck behind Steve's shield, before Bucky just throws Steve at them earning a chuckle from Amnesia. He takes out the other two before Amnesia can get close enough to be of any help. She decides the only way she'll be useful is if she gets moving so that's what she does. She lights up the door the soldiers on the other side just finished shooting out and hears a body fall to the floor. Before Bucky pushes it towards them sending it flying.

Amnesia starts down the stairs taking out the soldiers in her way the way she had the first one and a soldier bursts through the roof of the stairwell shooting at Bucky. He blocks the bullets with his metal arm and hits him with the battering ram the other guys had. He sees how far ahead Amnesia's gotten and uses the guy's repeling system to get down in front of her, almost landing on the guy she just took out. He swings her onto his back and she holds on knowing he's about to do something stupid.

Long story short, they make it out of the building unharmed although Steve is quite annoyed at the almost body count and Bucky and Amnesia are both getting away from their pursuers, Steve Rogers being one of them.


	9. ix

Bucky runs fast, and Amnesia keeps feeding him energy even though he doesn't really need it. Suddenly some guy in a cat suit comes out of nowhere knocking Amnesia off of Bucky's back and sending them both to the ground. Bucky engages having found his bearings quick enough. Amnesia starts devising a way to help other than putting the "go" back pack on when she sees the helicopter. She narrows her eyes, picturing the particles running through it. She stops it and suddenly their engines are failing and they're falling down leaving Sam to miss when he goes to take it down. Amnesia's heart goes to her throat when she sees him and immediately starts worrying about Sam as well as her James.

Bucky pushes cat-guy off of him and grabs Amnesia, resuming the former piggy-back position and running with it, well, jumping, or falling with style. Amnesia holds on for dear life as Bucky jumps down onto a busy underground street then starts literally running over cars. He crosses into the other lane and shrugs Amnesia off when he sees a 'cycle coming towards them. He grabs it, pushes the guy off, flips it around and pulls Amnesia on behind him before taking off in the other direction it was going in.

"I like this car," she tells him trying to lighten the mood and he chuckles but knows they're not out of the woods yet. The cat guy makes a reappearance and faster than Amnesia can react, Bucky grabs him out of midair. Amnesia reaches to KO him but is thrown off by the tilt of the bike, thankfully the cat is thrown off too. They near the edge of the garage and Bucky throws a bomb onto the top of the archway and it goes off cutting off their pursuers but somehow the cat guy makes it through and pops their back tire sending the bike skidding.

Amnesia screams seeing the cat guy on top of her soldier, claws out ready to kill and thanks every deity out there when Captain America knocks him off of her soldier. She flies over to his side despite the pain from her ankle which is at the least sprained. She holds onto his arm as everyone else joins the party. Rhodes lands and puts up his arms.

"Stand down now," he commands and Amnesia smirks although she knows she's in for it now. A spark of worry goes through her though when she thinks of what this will mean for her soldier and her grip on him tightens. "Congratulations Captain, you're a criminal," Rhodes says and Amnesia realizes Sam too, is in a lot of trouble now. Bucky gives her a nod to say it's all right when they come and put them all in cuffs, she meets his gaze before it gets cut off and then Steve's but Steve's eyes are on the cat guy who seems to be the King of Wakanda.

* * *

"Hello Amnesia," Steve says once they force her into a different car than Bucky without handcuffs as everyone that had the intention to suddenly forgot they did and so no one got around to it. She holds out a hand deciding he proved to be an ally at least for now and he warily takes it. The message he receives is clear. She's going to get Bucky out and no one is going to stop her.

"I'm Amnesia," she says, holding her hand out to Sam who takes it without hesitation. She gives him back his memories of her and then gives them all the silent treatment. While Sam stares at her dumbfounded.

"You...you...spilled water all over me?" He finally settles on and Steve gathers that he remembers. She listens as they question the King about his alter ego but makes no move to say anything. Instead she plans out her and Bucky's escape.

"He didn't kill your father Luke Skywalker," Amnesia can't help but defend her soldier though, when Tchalla starts throwing accusations around.

"Have you seen all of those movies yet?" Sam asks.

"I've see two," she pouts.

"Don't give me that look, I'm still pissed at you."

"You got over it five minutes ago," she corrects.

"Guilty until proven innocent. Or innocent until proven guilty, how they do it in your country. Nonetheless, I think you'll find you're wrong. So I ask, how long do you think you can keep your friend safe from me?" He asks smoothly.

"Doesn't every King want to begin a reign with murder of the innocent," Amnesia mutters then hops out of the car first chance she gets. Straightening up in rage when she sees Bucky locked up like he's some sort of psychopath.

"Calm down," Steve says following her and setting a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes are torn from Bucky and she instead fixes Steve with an electrifying glare.

"I'll make Hydra look like Walt Disney's Studios," she mutters darkly yet somehow calmly.

"What's going to happen to him?" Steve asks some guy that looks like he's in charge.

"Same thing that should be happening to you," he replies. "Psychological evaluation, and we'll go from there."

"What about a lawyer?" Steve asks and Amnesia snorts as what's his face laughs and the blonde lady next to him explains who he is.

"That's funny. See their weapons are placed in lock up, we'll write you a receipt. Who's she?"

"No one," Steve explains before Amnesia can.

"I better not look out the window and see anyone flying around in that," Sam says and they follow onto the next room. Steve and Amnesia sparing Bucky one more look.

"It'll be okay."

Amnesia ignores him.

* * *

"You'll be provided an office instead of a cell and do me a favor and stay in it," the pompous hedgehog says and Amnesia recognizes Natasha slide up next to Steve.

"For the record this is worse," she says.

"I missed you too," Amnesia says sarcastically.

"He's alive," is Steve's only response. Sam leads her into another room and Steve nods her in his direction, following her.

"Consequences?" Steve questions Tony's phone call.

"Secretary Ross wants you all prosecuted," Tony says. "Nice to see you again Forget Me Not."

"I'm not getting that shield back am I?" Steve asks.

"Technically it's the government's property. Wings too."

"Oh that's cold," Sam says.

"Warmer than jail," is Tony's response.

"I missed more than Sam getting his ass kicked by an ant didn't I?" Amnesia asks and Sam stiffens.

"What?" Steve and Sam chorus.

"Oh yeah I saw," she explains to Sam. "So the compound got broken into and there was this guy and he totally laid Sam out, but get this, he was literally an ant. I got a kick out of that."

* * *

"I don't like him," Amnesia murmurs aloud. Eyes glued to the screen showing the interview. They tried to keep them out but Amnesia knows her way around a computer system and every monitor in the building is connected to the system.

"He might be help," Steve says hopefully.

"I don't think so."

"What does he remember?" Steve asks Amnesia.

"I gave him what I had. Except for his missions. He doesn't remember a lot of those...I-I couldn't...he already thinks he's a monster. I couldn't add to that burden. He can guess though. He knows his numbers. They drilled it into him," Amnesia answers shakily.

"And how did you know him?"

"He's my soldier," she says firmly yet faraway.

"Why would the task force release this photo to begin with?" Steve questions moving on.

"Get the word out? Involve as many agents as we can?" The female agent asks and Amnesia scoffs suddenly figuring out where Steve's going with this.

"Right, it's a good way to flush a guy into hiding. Set off a bomb, get your picture taken, you got seven billion people looking for you. The winter soldier."

"I'd bet my last chance at seeing James alive and breathing in front of me that the guy who planed it is sitting right in front of him now," Amnesia says thirty seconds later the power goes out.

"Amn, is this you?" Steve yells.

"No!" She shouts back annoyed at the accusation but lighting the room up like a Christmas tree.

"I need a location agent star eyes," Amnesia demands.

"Sublevel five, east wing."

"Once in a lifetime opportunity boys, you coming?" Amnesia asks letting the lights go out and running out of the room, soon following Steve as he takes the lead.

* * *

They reach the floor and see bodies sprawled out. Amnesia frowns but she can guess what happened. "He's got the book," she murmurs to deaf ears. They notice the psychologist on the floor and Steve immediately goes to help. Amnesia recognizes fake injuries though and watches carefully, looking out for her soldier as Steve pins him to a wall and questions him.

Sam runs into Bucky first and Amnesia flies into action catching Bucky's eyes. They widen, recognizing her and he maneuvers himself between her and Sam before taking care of Sam only to be challenged by Steve. Bucky pushes her back, protecting her, but unlike earlier, she knows it's only because of Hydra's programming. He tosses Steve down an elevator shaft and grabs Amnesia, looking for the best escape route. Amnesia knows the only choice she's got is to take him out, and leave them stuck here, or let him get them out of here where will eventually go to sleep and then it will wear off.

Amnesia stays close to him when he's engaged by Tony and Natasha but doesn't help nor hinder except when Natasha falls. She goes over as she catches her breath. "This isn't him right now. The psychologist had a red book with him. Everything on how to handle the winter soldier. Hydra's super soldier rule book. You need to track down the psychologist and see-" Amnesia says quickly but is cut off by the winter soldier deciding it's time to move on. Amnesia looks at Natasha and the widow nods, Amnesia settles a bit, her arms wrapped around the Winter Soldier's neck as he works on getting her out of enemy territory. He drops her when Tchalla engages but it's only a matter of time before they're taking off again.

He leads her to a helicopter and she bites her lip feeling somewhat guilty about leaving Sam and Steve but they fell behind. She could stop him, quite easily in fact, but there's no way to make sure that it's Steve and Sam that find them and not whatever organization that was previously holding them. She realizes Steve is just trying to look out for a friend, not a weapon like everyone else. He doesn't see Bucky as the Winter Soldier, he still retains hope that his friend is still alive, and that's why Amnesia trusts him. She'd never in a million years believe Captain America, the United States' golden boy, would ever choose a former Hydra weapon over the safety of the world, much less the country, but he wasn't Captain America.

Just as James Buchanan Barnes was brainwashed, Steve Rogers was as well, but to the opposite polarity as his friend.

The Winter Soldier starts up the helicopter and is about to lift off when Amnesia spots Steve bursting through a door. "I'm sorry my soldier," Amnesia murmurs in Russian, her hand brushing his cheek as she sucks the energy away from him. Leaving him to slump in the pilot's seat. Steve runs and opens the door pulling his limp body out and allowing Amnesia to follow.

"He'll be fine when he wakes up and I'll explain everything but we need to get out of here," Amnesia says and Steve nods.


	10. X

"Hydra had trigger words. After all, they couldn't just wipe his mind whenever he didn't obey which as actually much more often than you'd think. They kept a book on him, anything you need to know about the Winter Soldier. I'd bet anything that the psychologist had it. Said the words, asked him about whatever he wanted to know, then set him loose," Amnesia says calmly watching over where her James was kept, his metal arm clamped down to keep him in place. She stressed that it wasn't necessary but despite this, Sam and Steve weren't taking any chances.

"What about you? He seemed set on dismantling the place until he saw you," Sam says.

The corner of Amnesia's mouth turns up in a smirk. "I was in an enemy facility, any of Hydra's weapons are programmed to protect and return me at all costs. I knew he'd get us out of there. And if our boy here wasn't fast enough, who knows where we'd be by now."

They fall silent as Bucky starts to come to. Immediately, Amnesia flies to his side, despite Sam and Steve trying to hold her back.

"It's alright, you're safe, I'm here, they're still gone," Amnesia murmurs softly, cradling his head, running a hand through his hair like she did whenever he was shook from sleep. He pulls her close with his free arm before he can start panicking about not being able to move his metal appendage. He buries his head in her neck and she leans on him, her eyes closed, her head particularly absent of any thought that isn't of him. He goes to move his other arm though and stiffens, realizing just as quickly that they are not alone. He moves Amnesia into a position where he can move easier as well as defend her as he analyzes the other two people.

"Steve," he says not showing the relief in his voice.

"Which Bucky am I talking to?" Steve asks coldly.

Bucky can't answer for a moment, as he himself has no clue who he is entirely. "Your Mom's name is Sarah," Bucky says and Amnesia snickers at the choice in information, sure that there's one of those "yo momma" jokes that the kids love so much in there somewhere. "You used to wear newspapers in your shoes," Bucky says laughing and Amnesia smiles watching his face as he does so.

"You can't read that in a museum," Steve says sounding a touch relieved.

"Just like that we're supposed to be cool," Sam asks astounded and Amnesia fixes him with a hard look, lightning flickering between her fingers.

"What did I do," Bucky asks and Amnesia sighs.

"Whatever he commanded. But the good news is, you got us out," Amnesia says tightly giving the two others scathing looks when they open their mouths to answer.

"I knew this would happen, everything Hydra put inside me is still there," his eyes meet Amnesia's as they've had this conversation before. "All he had to do was say the god damn words."

"Why don't you just make him forget it like you did to me?" Sam asks.

"If I wanted him to be brain dead I would but I happen to be against turning people into vegetables," Amnesia says tartly, hating him for even suggesting it.

"I'm just saying, you had no problem doing it to me."

"I did it out of sympathy. You're a good guy Sam Wilson, and I knew you'd follow me to right whatever wrong. I couldn't have that and I didn't want you torturing yourself. Besides, I was new and I could easily pick out every memory you had of me," Amnesia finishes her explanation then, works on releasing her James. She gives Steve an exasperated look when she can't release the clamp because she's still as weak as a child and he helps her allowing Bucky to get up, Amnesia glued to his side like usual, and his arm around her waist as he looks over his metal arm.

"Who was he?" Steve asks.

"I don't know."

"People are dead, the bombing, set up, he doctored all that to get ten minutes with you. I need you to do better than I don't know," Steve says.

"He wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was kept," Amnesia frowns not having a lot of information on Siberia, only that her soldier was kept there from time to time. She knew nothing, no layout, no information on what happened while he was kept there, just when he got there and when he left. "He wanted to know exactly where."

"I don't even know that," Amnesia murmurs.

"Why would he need to know that?"

"No..." Amnesia murmurs. "I thought those experiments didn't work out."

"I'm not the only Winter Soldier. And they didn't, at least, not like the ones they did on me. They were stronger, less susceptible to Hydra's control. To Hydra, I came out perfect, and they came out too feral. They're Hydra's most elite death squad. They have the most kills in Hydra history, and that was before the serum."

"The Doctor, could he control them?" Steve asks.

"Enough."

"He said he wanted to see an empire fall," Steve replies speaking of the psychologist.

"They can do it. They speak thirty languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize, they can take a whole country down in one night and you'll never see him coming," Bucky says and Amnesia gets stuck on why. She knows he isn't Hydra, well he could be, but she doubts it. Does he want to rule the world? Revenge? What empire is he aiming to take down? "Are you okay?" Bucky asks her quietly.

"I'll always be okay when I'm with you. You won't allow otherwise," she says just as softly and he chuckles.

"You're right."

"I always am. What about you? Are you okay?"

"Better. I thought they'd lock you up," he says, holding her closer.

"You know what I meant," she says not allowing him to change the subject.

"I'm trying not to think about it."

"Okay then," she says meeting his eyes. "Let's just focus on taking out the death squad yeah? They should know I have that name copyrighted."

"I love you," he says softly, for her ears only.

"I know. And I love you too."

"I know," he repeats pressing a kiss to her forehead.

* * *

"Barnes, Rogers, Wilson, and whoever the hell that girl is. Thirty-six hours."

"You alright?" Natasha asks Tony as he takes a deep breath.

"Always," Tony replies, trying to look like he's bouncing back.

* * *

"I ship him and Tony too much. I just...I don't like her," Amnesia says as her, Bucky and Sam sit in the small bug waiting for Steve and Sharon to finish talking.

"Steve's straight. Tony's straight to for all I know," Sam says staring at her like she's grown another head. Bucky just smiles and holds her closer to him.

"You know nothing," Amnesia replies, blowing off his comment.

"Can you move your seat up?" Bucky asks Sam a few seconds later.

"No." Is Sam's stiff reply after seeing Amnesia curled up into Bucky's side. He can't help but be a little jealous. He was going to take her out on a date before it got all screwy. Because of him in fact. Bucky just sighs and lifts Amnesia up, setting her on his lap and switching sides so he isn't sitting behind Sam anymore.

"He's going to kiss her," Amnesia predicts bitterly. "He did it. Tony's going to be heartbroken," she says sarcastically, then chuckles at the looks Bucky and Sam are giving Steve.

* * *

"Stay close to me okay? I don't want you out of my sight," Bucky tells Amnesia as they race up the parking garage where they're meeting everyone.

"As long as you do the same," she counters and he smirks.

"Cap," Clint says in greeting as everyone gets out of their respective vehicles. He gives everyone else a nod but stops on Amnesia. He asks Steve the silent question and Steve nods in response. They exchange pleasantries but stay away from Bucky and Amnesia though they're curious. Clint opens the door and reveals the other "recruit" and Amnesia snorts trying to cover her laughter.

"Sam, that's the guy who beat you up right?" She asks getting a kick out of the guy's presence.

"Shut your mouth," Sam says pointing to him but they both know they're joking although Bucky puts himself in between the two. Amnesia walks over to Sam to continue to tease him and Bucky follows, neither paying attention to the new guy's fangirling.

"Come on, he doesn't look _that_ tough."

"We're not talking about this," Sam says firmly and Bucky is smiling at Sam's embarrassment.

"I mean listen to him, he's just a ball of sunshine," Amnesia says. "And he completely laid you on your ass," she says laughing at this point, picturing him. Then she puts a hand on his shoulder, sending him the image.

"I hate you," he tells her and she just laughs some more.

"No you don't. But you wish you could," she tells him, before retreating back to Bucky's side and he shakes his head, the mood suddenly much more somber.

"It was a great audition but let me tell you, it'll never happen again," Sam says once Lang move onto him and Amnesia laughs.

"They tell you what we're up against?" Steve asks him.

"Something about psycho assassins?" He replies.

"We're outside the law on this one," Steve says and Lang nods. "If you come with us, you're a wanted man."

"Yeah, well, what else is new?"

"We should get moving," Bucky says knowing that time is of the essence better than any of them.

"I got a chopper lined up," Clint says. "Don't take it down," he says shooting Amnesia a look.

"It was one time," she replies with narrowed eyes. Suddenly an announcement rings out and everyone listens although only two of them understand it.

"They're evacuating the airport," Bucky explains.

"Stark," they conclude.

"Suit up," Steve commands and Amnesia holds her arms out wondering what she's supposed to do before shrugging and watching Bucky prepare. He hands her a pistol and she raises an eyebrow.

"It'll do you more good than me," she tells him and he sighs, standing up and pulling her close to him by the waist.

"It'll give me some peace of mind," he explains slipping it in the back waistband of her jeans. She sighs, knowing she won't win the argument and removes it, shoving it in the inside pocket of Bucky's giant leather jacket that she stole from him as he watches. He nods accepting the change and she presses her lips to his clinging to the hope that they'll both walk out of this unscathed.

* * *

"Holy shit they're all just popping up like daisies," Amnesia murmurs as they all watch the plan unfold around Steve.

"Quinjet's in hangar five," Sam tells them all.

"Alright, lets get there," Amnesia says, holding onto Bucky like she did when they escaped the apartment.

"What the hell is that?" Amnesia asks seeing some red dude flying among the rafters.

"Everyone's got a gimmick now," Sam mutters just before he crashes through a window and takes him down. Amnesia snorts but is taken aback when he catches Bucky's punch.

"You have a metal arm! That is awesome dude!" The red guy says and Amnesia shakes off her shock before Bucky and reaches out to KO him but Sam flies into action before it connects. Amnesia lets go of Bucky and runs over to a box containing important electrical stuff.

"James! Can you open this?" She asks because it's screwed shut. Without any questions he does and soon Amnesia is blowing the lights out trying to hit the red guy but he's moving too fast and Amnesia doesn't quite know what she's doing. Sam and Bucky distract him and soon enough he's sitting on a bunch of speakers. She throws enough electricity at it to make it go up shooting him into the air and right into Sam's drone.

"You couldn't have done that earlier?" Bucky asks him.

"I hate you."

"You guys are idiots," Amnesia calls down to them when she finally finds them.

"I love you too," Sam says and she rolls her eyes while Bucky narrows his. Amnesia's breathing hard when she reaches them, still having the endurance of an overweight cat. But she burns the webbing away from them in a matter of seconds and soon enough they're on their way. They meet the others outside but they all skid to a stop when they see Vision burning a "do not cross" line into the asphalt.

"Captain Rogers, I know you believe what you are doing is right, but for the collective good, you must surrender now," he speaks.

"I'm on team let's not and say we did!" Amnesia shouts. "If you really want, I can make you think that too!" She casually threatens as Team Iron Man lines up across from them. "Did you find it," she asks Natasha on a more serious note.

"It was there, but he took it with him. You've got no proof that's what happened," Natasha tells her and Amnesia frowns then steps away from Bucky, feeding him the image of the plane moving so he knows what she's doing and he reluctantly lets her. They all start charging towards each other and Amnesia turns and heads for the plane thirty feet behind them. She sets a hand on the front wheel sending energy into the plane and turning things on, her eyes glazing over as she puts all her attention into the task to get it done faster. A minute later, she's sending a commercial jet, full speed, at the three high flyers on the other team.

She moves back towards Bucky on instinct, aiming to take the cat out before he hurts him although Bucky seems to be holding his own fairly easily. Just as the tide turns though, Bucky gets throw into a crate.

"Throw him to me!" Amnesia yells seeing Wanda have their back. She does and Amnesia reaches down and drains the energy out of him, putting the cat to sleep. Bucky pulls her up and slings her back on his back giving Wanda a thankful look.

"We gotta get going, that guy's probably in Siberia right now," Bucky tells Cap.

"I'll take Vision, you two get to the jet," Steve commands.

"No!" Sam says over their comms. "You get to the jet, all three of you. The rest of us aren't getting out of here."

"He's right," Clint pitches in. "As much as I hate to admit it, if we're gonna win this one, some of us might have to lose it."

"This isn't the real fight," Sam yells over the comm when there's no response from Steve.

"Alright Sam, what's the plan?"

"We need a diversion," he says simply. "Something big."

"Well, I already launched a plane at them, I don't really have any other tricks," Amnesia murmurs bitterly.

"I got something kinda big," Lang says. "But I can't hold it very long. On my signal, run like hell. And if I tear myself in half, don't come back for me."

"He's gonna tear himself in half?" Bucky asks just as confused as everyone else.

"We sure about this big guy?" Steve asks.

"I do it all the time. I mean once. In a lab and I passed out," he replies and Steve looks ahead, already coming up with another plan.

"I guess that's the signal," Steve says as the three of them walk out of their hiding spots.

"Well stop staring we're supposed to be running," Amnesia mutters and Bucky nods then pulls Steve into action.

"I can't fix that!" Amnesia yells when they see the watchtower coming down thanks to Vision. Wanda catches it though and she gives Bucky a burst of energy allowing him to pass Steve. Her hand brushes his shoulder and soon Steve is catching up, both faster than before, and just in time too. Rhodes comes out and hits her with some sort of beam causing Wanda to lose focus and the tower to come down. They clear the wreckage though only to see the Widow.

"You're not going to stop," she states and Steve shakes his head.

"You know I can't."

"I'm gonna regret this," she says shooting T'Challa behind them. Amnesia frowns.

"How the hell is he awake? I practically put him in a coma," Amnesia says aloud and kinda pissed off.

"Go," Widow commands ignoring her. They get on the quinjet and take off.

Amnesia stands near Bucky as Steve pilots the jet. He focus is on her comm as she tries to get a message to Natasha. She eventually sends it in morse code. _Get out of there now,_ even though she doesn't need the advice, Natasha is very good at hiding, however, she gained Amnesia respect and that's a hard thing to do.


	11. xi

"What's going to happen to your friends?" Bucky asks once they're well on their way.

"There's a well supplied base in the middle of the ocean. They'll be confined there. It'll be hard to get in there but not impossible. If we get out of this, it'll be a walk in the park," Amnesia says absently.

"How do you know this?" Steve asks her.

"Back at the compound, I was pulling anything about anywhere Bucky might be. If he was caught and being held by you guys, still at some Hydra base. That base is the only one fit to hold an avenger. They control who goes in and once inside, there's about fifteen layers of safety measures if someone escapes. If I survive this, get me in the base and everyone can walk out of there. Well, sort of, we'll need to fly."

"I don't think I'm worth all that," Bucky says and Amnesia shakes her head, hiding herself in Bucky's arms because he should know she'd blow up the world to keep him safe.

"What you did all those years. It wasn't you. You didn't have a choice."

"I know. But I did it," he replies.

"Everyone's got scars James. Perhaps they're not as bad as yours but they've still got them. The people you're currently trying to protect, there are organizations built to eliminate disagreement. Their death tolls are so much higher than yours could ever be. If the public knew abut them, they wouldn't care about Hydra anymore, much less you. The only thing they've got on you is that you're no longer a ghost, and Hydra's been blown open for anyone with computer skills to see. You're good now. You're saving people. But most importantly, you're out of their hands. You need to trust that I won't let you go dark again. I'll stop you okay?"

"But what if stopping me means killing me Amn?" He asks gruffly and she stops.

"Then I'll die too," she says after careful consideration. "I know," she tells him when he buries his face in her hair.

"I know," he replies understanding what she means. This time it's Steve giving Bucky the _look_.

* * *

"Remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway beach in the back of a-"

"Freezer truck?" Bucky says completing Steve's sentence as the ramp goes down. "Was that the time you used our train money to buy hot dogs?"

"You blew three bucks trying to win that stuffed bear for a red head," Steve says defensively and Amnesia laughs.

"What was her name again?"

"Delores. You called her Dot."

"She's gotta be a hundred years old right now."

"So are we pal," Steve says.

"Yeah, I can see the gray hair," Amnesia says pretending to look over Steve's hair.

"You're one to talk," he teases right back.

"Well, let's survive this and then go on a jail break."

"He can't have been here longer than two hours," Steve supplies looking over the other vehicle and the open door.

"Long enough to wake them up," Bucky says leading the way inside. Amnesia powers up the elevator and they all get in the extremely small metal box then head down. They slam to a stop and see lights on up ahead which causes Amnesia to frown. She sticks behind Bucky, following him and Steve closely though she wants to be of more help and light the place up, anything. They make it down the hall and start climbing stairs, Amnesia between the two guys when they're startled by a sound behind them. They turn, guns poised, Amnesia's hand on a box of nearby wires as she quickly tries to decide what the next move will be.

Bucky doesn't fire when he sees it's Tony though. None of them do as they're all genuinely surprised.

"You seem a little defensive," Tony says putting his mask away.

"It's been a long day," Steve replies, meeting him halfway. Amnesia follows him, knowing that she can take Tony down easier than Steve.

"At ease soldier, I'm not currently after you."

"Then why are you here?"

"Maybe his story is not so crazy."

"Just admit you were wrong," Amnesia tells him with an annoyed sigh.

"Ross has no idea I'm here, I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise I've got to arrest myself."

"Well that sounds like a lot of paperwork," Steve says and Amnesia walks back over to Bucky, realizing she's not going to get the chance to take the billionaire out. "It's good to see you Tony."

"You too. Manchurian candidate you can relax there's a truce going on. You can drop it," Tony says and Amnesia rolls her eyes but nods telling her soldier that he's good.

"I got heat signatures," Tony says once they're back on their way and a little farther into the base.

"How many?" Bucky asks.

"Uhh, one," Tony replies and Bucky and Amnesia share a look. Something's not right, they both agree. They step forward and the six "freezers" light up.

"That you?" Steve asks Amnesia and she shakes her head no.

"If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep," a voice over the PA system says. They notice the bullet holes in the glass. Six head shots. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?"

"Who is he?" Amnesia asks Tony.

"Zemo. A general from Sokovia," he answers briefly and the wheels in Amnesia's head start turning as she tries to figure out how he wants to see the avengers fall.

"I'm grateful to them though, they brought you here," lights flicker on and suddenly Zemo is illuminated, Steve throws his shield automatically and Amnesia olls her eyes as it bounces off the window he's hiding behind. "Please Captain. The Soviets built this chamber to survive a nuclear blast sequence."

"I'm betting I could beat that," Tony calls out.

"Oh I'm sure you could Mr Stark, given time. But then you'd never know why you came."

"Why did we come? Come on, take your bow. You've got us right where you wanted us. We fell into your trap. Why are we here," Amnesia asks, waiting for the carpet to be pulled from under her feet.

"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here," Steve states.

"I thought about nothing else," Zemo replies. "For over a year. Studied you, I followed you, and now that you're standing here I just realized, there's a bit of green in the glow of your eyes."

"So you came here to steal Tony's boyfriend. Great, brilliant. James and I are leaving," Amnesia says sarcastically.

"How nice to find a flaw," Zemo carries on ignoring her.

"You're Sokovian. is that what this is about?"

"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No, I'm here because I made a promise."

"You lost someone."

"I lost everyone," he corrects. "And so will you." Zemo flips on a screen and they all crowd around it wondering what it's from, Amnesia recognizes it right away as she stored it. "An empire toppled by it's enemies can rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That's dead. Forever."

"Tony, do you know who killed your parents?" Amnesia asks before it's revealed.

"It was a car crash," he corrects.

"Who told you that? I need to murder them," Amnesia mutters before taking Bucky's hand. "Get out," she tells him and he looks at her.

"Wait, I know that road. What's this?" Tony calls out.

Bucky doesn't move as as soon as he sees his motorcycle on the screen it's like he's reliving the moment. He's stuck there. The first person to make a move is Tony, and Steve is quick to hold him back, and Amnesia puts herself between him and her soldier.

"James, get out of here. We will calm him down," Amnesia commands, her eyes not moving from Tony Stark.

"Come on," he says intent to bring her with.

"I need to hold him back. Otherwise, you won't get away. Steve can't do it on his own."

"No. I'm not leaving."

"Go soldier. Before I make you," she says, her voice catching. He shakes his head and heads out, putting faith in the notion that she can handle herself, but not trusting it completely. He disappears, will calling himself a coward. When Tony makes his next move and takes out Steve, Bucky is gone.

Tony knows he's only got one option, and raises a hand, pointing at Amnesia. If it connects, it'll kill her no doubt. "Get out here or I kill her," Tony commands and Amnesia's eyes narrow. She draws in energy and soon the only light in the base is coming from Tony's suit, and Amnesia's glowing white eyes. She doesn't know what she's doing. But that's a piece of information Tony doesn't have. What he does have, is a target and heat recognition. Amnesia is giving off a lot.

She springs into action though, rapidly coming up with several different plans and going with the creepiest. She can put images in people's heads. She's got a lot of energy, and Tony would love the image of a killer clown popping up in front of him with a chainsaw. Unfortunately, due to metal flooring, Steve sees it too and Amnesia creates a fun house in their heads, putting every twisted gimmick in there. Tony threatened her life, he deserves it. She surges power into his suit, burning out the heat sensor so he's just about as blind as the rest of them. He gets lucky though and sends out one shot, it doesn't hit Amnesia, but it sends equipment onto her and she sucks in a breath trying to keep from screaming, although a sharp piece of glass is buried in her shoulder and her right arm is in under the mess, certainly not moving anytime soon. Tony and Steve breath easier as there's no longer a scary fun house with killer clowns stalking them in their heads and start fighting each other.

Bucky is at her side almost immediately, having never gone far. He frees her, his face cold with anger as he sees the damage Stark did. He brings the fight to Tony, desperate for revenge. Tony fires something and the place starts going up in flames, the bright side being that they can see now.

"Get her out of here!" Bucky yells to Steve, pointing to Amnesia, as he engages Tony. Steve of course never leaves his friend, but he does move Amnesia to a less precarious spot.

"Go!" Steve yells stealing Tony's attention once more. Bucky sighs and slings Amnesia onto his back, realizing she won't be able to hold on like usual due to her injuries. Instead he throws her over his shoulder, a much less comfortable and more precarious in general, but with her injury and the height he has to climb, it's the only solution. After the first few jumps, Amnesia's out for the count, which is probably a good thing because Bucky threw her out of the base and into the snow before Stark shot the missile shutting them in.

That's where T'Challa finds her. He picks her up, holding her gently in his arms without any fear of attack, and carries her back to his jet, where Zemo sits in cuffs, knocked out and waiting to be dealt with. He sets her down and helps how he can, which isn't much. In all his studies, he never went to medical school.

He leaves a message for Steve and Bucky, offering them sanctuary in his country, and then he leaves. He drops Zemo off, allowing the course of justice to proceed, and returns home with three other passengers.

* * *

An entire week passes, in which they keep Amnesia locked away in a medical ward. She has two visitors, and a man that never leaves her side. Her shoulder is on it's way to healing with only a scar in it's place. It could've been much worse and she knows it.

Bucky stays by her side every minute of every hour. Nothing can bring him to leave her side, as the last time he did, she gained extreme injuries and almost died.

Her right arm is a problem. She nearly shattered her humerus, and fractured both her radius and ulna in several spots. The doctors don't see her using her right hand ever again. They've talked about replacing the arm with one similar to Bucky's but she shut that idea down and started teaching them how to do their jobs. Her right arm was soon healing up faster than her shoulder and much stronger than before. Bucky's arm was replaced with another, after Amnesia fed them the details of his arm.

Two weeks later, with the help of T'Challa, Steve, Bucky and Amnesia hid in one of his jets as the king of Wakanda went to visit the avengers. Ross let him and as soon as they landed in the base, they got into action, powering down the base and finding their teammates. Amnesia leads the way, while Steve and Bucky take out anyone they come across. T'Challa distracts the big wigs and soon they're busting out with Lang, Barton, Maximoff, and Wilson.

"What now?" Sam asks as they fly away.

"We retreat to our own corners of the world, and hope it doesn't need us ever again. We hide, not because we're afraid to fight, or we can't, we hide because they're not ready for us to fight," Amnesia says, holding tightly onto Bucky's hand with her left.

"Where will you go?" Steve asks getting the feeling the two won't be staying with them.

"We've made arrangements," Bucky answers, obeying to the conditions set forth by T'Challa.

"We'll visit every other weekend," Amnesia butts in before Steve can argue. "It's too dangerous to be seen together Steve Rogers."

And so they go their separate ways. Clint heads home, and Amnesia recommends he move although they all doubt that the people who do know the location of his family home would ever use it against him. Wanda goes with him, another recommendation from her. Lang goes to wherever he was before, and Sam and Steve go their own way, more reluctantly than the others.


	12. xii

"Thank you. You're in for a lot of trouble if they find out you've been harboring us," Amnesia tells T'Challa as he goes through paperwork sat on his desk.

"It is the least I could do. Besides, you two have become assets to my country. My people are the safest they've been in years. I am glad you have chosen to stay. However, that is not why I asked for you. Mr Barnes has asked about being put back into a cryogenic freeze until he we have figured out to stabilize his history. I assume he didn't talk to you about this."

"No. I will, thank you for telling me. Do you trust me?"

"Yes."

"Then trust that I won't let his past rear its head," Amnesia says firmly and he nods accepting her demand. "Thank you."

"You were all victims. My father, your beloved and yourself. If I can help any of you find peace..." he trails off looking up from his work.

"I looked your father up. He was a wonderful man and I'm sure he'd be proud of you," Amnesia tells him.

"I'd like to think so."

"Well, you know where to find me...back at the airport, you should've been out for twelve hours. What happened?" Amnesia asks before she walks out the door.

"Life is full of mysteries," T'Challa replies with a smile. She shakes her head and leaves his office. She heads to the garage and gets on a motorcycle, speeding away.

A few miles down a hidden road, the jungle growing thick on either side, rests a bungalow fit for a king. The road curved and led directly to the garage situated under the house. She hits the sensor in the road and triggers the door to open after recognizing her face. There is another bike in the garage, a sleek sports car, one of T'Challa's taste, and a bigger SUV. Bucky and Amnesia prefer to use the motorcycles. The bungalow itself, was giving to T'Challa by his father, it was close enough to the palace to keep an eye on him yet far enough where T'Challa had freedom most people in his position wouldn't have. Since he took on the mantle of King, he doesn't leave the fortified walls of the Wakandan palace unless on business so he gave the bungalow to the two of them.

Bucky didn't like it at first. Most of it was underground and that made his skin crawl due to the feeling he'd get from all of his time spent in underground bases at Hydra. He also hated that the actual house part was very easy to penetrate with bullets, most of the walls were one way mirrors after all. It wasn't until T'Challa explained all of the defenses and security included that he even considered moving in. The details include the dense, manufactured, jungle around it. Some of the trees in the thick forest aren't trees, they're metal monstrosities with enough firepower to take out a tank. Despite the house's remote location, it's still close enough to the palace to be protected by its anti-aircraft missiles, there are several natural predators kept in the area that would give any man a run for his money, unless he was say, a supersoldier, and T'Challa's favorite botanist grew some homemade monstrosities and put those in the forest.

Long story short, the only way to get to the bungalow was by using the road, or flying. Then you'd have to find it too, Let's just say T'Challa's stealth tech could give the former SHIELD a run for its money. Bucky eventually settled down and was soon won over by the interior. There was a turntable and lots of space to dance.

Amnesia turned off the bike and then left the garage, tossing the keys into a bowl they kept by the door. She heads up the stairs after seeing Bucky is not in the training room, she follows the sound of Ed Sheeran and finds him sitting down on the couch, deep in thought. She stays at the door observing him for a moment as there has never been a time where she could even remotely sneak up on him, not that anyone would want to. The vinyl comes to a stop and Amnesia waits for him to get up and flip it over but he stays where he is. Amnesia bites her lip, knowing something's wrong. She switches sides of the record, he notices and turns his head slightly, watching her with his eyes as she wakes over and sits in front of him on the coffee table.

"What's wrong?" She asks softly.

"Just...thinking."

"You're not going to leave me right?" Amnesia asks frantically, knowing what he's thinking about. "Tell me you're not making plans to go under behind my back James. James please," Amnesia begs, tears welling up in her eyes as she hears the words they had danced to for the first time. Everything she was, was tied to him.

Bucky doesn't reply. Amnesia takes this as his answer then gets up and runs away. He could've stopped her, they both knew that. He didn't though, and neither could tell if that was a good or a bad thing. She went to the kitchen and made cookies. Baking seemed to keep her busy but her mind found its way to Bucky. So she read too. And put on a movie. And re-organized their spice shelf alphabetically. When the cookies were finally done, she made a decision.

* * *

It had been two weeks. Two weeks since she and Bucky had their "fight." In that time Amnesia had elected to staying at the palace, helping T'Challa run things and keeping an eye on anything relating to a cryo-freeze. She had decided that if Bucky wanted to leave her, she'd make it easy for him and just left before he could. It's not about the stuff Hydra put in his head although that is undoubtedly his excuse. He was being unreasonable, but she knew he'd need to work things out on his own, so she took a leave of absence, being just as unseasonable as her soldier.

As for Bucky, he spent more and more time in the training room under the compound going through punching bag after punching bag. He knew Amnesia was at the palace helping T'Challa run the country. That's how she found out he had asked about being put back under he supposed. It made him bitter that she was going to someone else for support but he knew she deserved someone much better than himself. She didn't deserve an assassin that could kill her if the wrong thing was said. She deserved to be protected and cherished, T'Challa could offer her that and more, he could not. So it was out of self punishment he didn't leave the room. He knew that if he did, he'd go find her and bring her home even if she was kicking and screaming. He knew he'd go Hydra without the words being mentioned. He needed to be put back under if she wanted to live out her life because he'd never let her go.

* * *

T'Challa frowned seeing Amnesia sitting behind a lap top. She should be sleeping, to be fair, he too should be sleeping.

"What are you doing?" He asks and she jumps, not noticing him enter the room.

"There's this league of assassins from Russia, they just dispatched two of their best to area 32. I bet they're supposed to meet up with our man Trevor. So I just nailed Trevor for selling vibranium on the black market. I'll forward the info to Okoye," Amnesia mumbles.

"When did you last sleep?" He asks and she just shrugs. Their separation was getting out of hand. He didn't know why Amnesia left the bungalow and why she was staying away, but it wasn't healthy for either of them. He knew her James had barely left the training room at the bungalow.

"About a week ago," Amnesia says absently.

"You should head back to the safe house. You won't be much use here soon if you don't," T'Challa says and Amnesia waves him off, returning to her research.

He sighs in resignation and rubs his eyes as he walks away. He's tired, but his health is the least of his worries. In a matter of minutes, he's pulling up into the garage of the bungalow and following the sound of punching bags dying. For a moment he hesitate, questioning whether his armor would be a good idea. It probably would be, however, he doesn't want to waste the time to travel back to the palace and grab it.

"Mr Barnes," he calls out after stepping into the room and observing the soldier. In a second he's knocked flat on his back, Bucky straddling him, metal arm raised and ready to come down in a deadly punch. He stops though, breathing heavily and gets off of the King of Wakanda.

"What are you doing here?" Bucky asks briskly, clenching his fists. He knows why he's here though. To check on him and add to the list of reasons he's better than Bucky, the thought sparks more anger in him than he'd care to admit.

"I may be no expert in women, but you are doing it very wrong," T'Challa says smoothly after getting up. "I do not know why you're distancing yourself brother, but it does you no good. Neither of you."

"She deserves better," Bucky mutters.

"Perhaps, but who better than you?"

"There are billions of men in the world that are better for her, even you. I'm a killer. I may not have killed your father, but I killed those innocent people. What if my next victim is her? What if Hydra left a bomb in my head, ready to go off and what if she gets caught in the aftermath?"

"Then you will protect her, as she will protect you. Go find her. I believe it is time we all get a good night's rest."

* * *

Bucky stood at the doorway looking into the room where Amnesia sat, staring at the wall, her hand on an electrical socket. The lights would flicker every once in a while as she turned lights on and off throughout the palace and overall just made sure everything was running as it was supposed to. It comforted her, she wasn't directly connected to any computers, but she found ways to manipulate what she had, to gain control over what she didn't possess. She was doing what she had been doing her entire life.

Bucky noticed how pale she was. Her cheeks looked sallow, and her eyes looked dead as the color flickered and glowed through the different colors of the rainbow. The color corresponded to the amount of energy running through her red and white were extremely high, but the closer it got to her normal brown, the less energy she had. The light in the room bursts, and Bucky is on the other side of the room standing over Amnesia and protecting her from any broken glass before any of it can hit the floor. He picks her up, separating her from the system and starts carrying her away. She shocks him at first, but he carries through not letting anything pass his facade. They're almost to the garage when Amnesia finally gets a hold of her surroundings.

"James?" Amnesia asks. He meets her eyes and the facade breaks as she stares up at him with eyes full of adoration.

"You're mine. I won't go under. I would never leave you alone. I don't deserve you, and you deserve better than me, but I'm your soldier. I'll always protect you because you're my amnesia. You make me forget _them._ And I swear to god, I'll kill anyone that tries to take you from me."

"I deserve you, and you deserve me. We're a package me and you. But if you try to leave me, you won't need them to put you to sleep, I'll put you to sleep so long that Steve won't hold the record anymore."

"Sounds like a deal doll," she leaned up and kissed him and he returned in kind. His stubble scratched at her cheeks as she pulled herself closer to him, the kiss going farther than either had planed. "We might want to get back to the bungalow if you want to continue," Amnesia says breathlessly when they pull away. He chuckles but places her on the ground next to his bike, he gets on and then she does the same, holding on tightly to his waist. They make it home in record time.

 **Voila, completed in record time!**

 **Thank you for reading this, feel free to leave a review, I love constructive criticism, or just talk about something else I don't care, I'll read it either way but thank you, thank you.**

 **This is the end but I might add to it when I see the Black Panther movie but who knows :)**

 **Anyways, go continue living your life and good luck finding more reading material.**


	13. xiii

Part II

 _REMEMBERANCE_

* * *

Shuri was happily tinkering away in her lab and Amnesia was helping her innovate. Amnesia found the young girl intellectually fascinating and enjoyed having someone that could keep up with her. Together they were able to heal the mind of James Buchanan Barnes and they moved from the bungalow to a small farm just outside of the city's limits. She didn't spend much time there though. Where Bucky found peace, she found a restless mind which kept bringing her back to Shuri's lab where she maintained daily operations and fixed any bugs that generated.

"The test on the suit is done. Why did you bother making the two? He's going to take the silver we both know it," Amnesia says as she moves onto another project, one of her own, meant for containing energy like the tesseract and canceling it out. She figured there were still Hydra weapons out there from Schmidt's reign and wanted to make their acquisition easier.

"Gold is for Kings," Shuri says with a shrug. "Now Check these out, I think they're ready. They're completely soundproof," she says showing off a new pair of shoes. "I'm calling them Sneakers."

"That's amazing but the name hurts me on the inside," Amnesia says thoughtfully glancing up from the device in front of her.

"It's supposed to."

"I think I've got a good basis for this-this energy trap but we won't know how well it works unless we have the tesseract. But I think I've got the right frequency."

"Forgot you were working on that. Would it work on my brother? Could it cancel out the black panther?"

"No, the flower is a different compound. The tesseract is...living somehow. The closest we will be to figuring out if it would work is if it cancels out my powers because my ability to channel energy was given to me by it."

"Then why make it? You're not a warrior. Why make a device that may be used against you?" Shuri asks knowing her own answer to the question but not understanding the pale haired girl's reasons.

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. It isn't nearly ready yet. I've still got to finish building it."

"You could make an anti shield. Something that blocks the device from reaching you. Think about it, that could give you an advantage."

"T'Challa is back," Amnesia says alerting her when the ship meets city limits, ending the conversation.

"Let's go, he's got Nakia," she says pulling the tiny white haired girl away and letting it slid.

"Nakia is his girlfriend?"

"He wishes. I bet he froze again."

"Oh he's whipped," Amnesia says proudly with a big innocent smile.

"Exactly!" Shuri cheers happy at the knowledge she's given the girl who's lived in a cave her entire life. She's shown her vine, John Mulaney, and even made her get a Twitter account. They meet the Queen Mother outside as the ship lands.

"I bet you he froze," Shuri says.

"Alright, What are we betting?" Amnesia asks curiously.

"If I win, you have to hack Tony Stark's security and paint all of his suits pink."

"If I win, you have to get me as much vantablack as I need and you can't say it's for me when anyone asks," Amnesia says thoughtfully planning out some designs for several space related items.

"Alright."

Just then the ship unloads and T'Challa, Okoye, and everyone else gets off. A woman in green stays to T'Challa's side and greets the Queen Mother and Shuri glancing at Amnesia quickly.

"Did he freeze?" Shuri asks as soon as she left.

"Like an antelope in headlights," Okoye replies and Shuri laughs.

"I told you he would," Shuri says with a laugh glancing back at Amnesia.

"Were you betting on your brother?" The queen asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Only a little," she replies.

Amnesia goes over to Okoye and fills her in on the spy network and all that's happened in the time she's been gone, which isn't much and then she goes off with Shuri as she flips off her older brother. When they get back to the lab, Amnesia immediately gets to work, getting into her own computer system and frazzling her trail before she gets started on Tony's security. It's been months since the incident and months since she's spoken to Steve or anyone besides Bucky, but she still hasn't quite forgiven Tony. Painting his suits pink won't leave her with any sort of guilty conscience. But as much as she doesn't want to admit it, she misses him dearly.

There a couple different suits on his system though...ones that aren't meant for him. There's a new prototype of the hulk buster but there's nothing that shows he's going to put any work into it. The ones that draw her attention are for that spider boy they met at the airport. After issuing new commands to FRIDAY to paint the suits neon pink she digs into his file purely out of curiosity. What she finds makes her incredibly angry. The so-called "Spider-Man" is a fifteen year old boy.

She closes up the system, fuming as she does so, deciding instantly she's visiting the billionaire to zap some sense into him.

"I need to borrow a ship. I need to visit Tony Stark and punch him in the face," she says angrily and Shuri looks up never having seen the girl so angry.

"What happened?"

"He sent a fifteen year old into battle."

"Talk to Okoye or my brother. And you better tell the white wolf. He worries about enough as it is," Shuri advises. Amnesia nods then goes to find them wherever they are getting ready for challenge day.

"King T'Challa," Amnesia says knocking on the door to the room he's in he tells her to come in. "I need to borrow a ship. I don't know if you knew, but that kid in the red suit, Spider-Man? He's fifteen years old and Stark is arming him for battle. I'm going to go punch him in the face and I'd enjoy some help in getting there."

"From the look in your eye, I can tell that you will do it with or without my help." He states with a raised eyebrow letting her know he thinks it's a bad idea immediately. It's not that he doesn't see the problem, he does, he just doesn't see the sense in confronting Stark about it.

"Imagine if it was Shuri. Kids have no place on the battlefield," Amnesia says firmly.

"Alright, but you should wait until after the challenges are over."

"Nothing is going to happen to you. If you're challenged, it will come from M'Baku and you will win that fight. Don't kill him. The mountain tribe is prideful and they keep to themselves but they still watch. You may not be king yet, but you've been acting as one for the past few months and you've done well. I imagine, they might find their way out of isolation in the near future going off statistics and M'Baku's twitter account."

"M'Baku has a Twitter?" T'Challa asks in astoundment.

"Yes. He's very funny. Just...don't take any of what he says to heart. I have no doubt that he'll say something. Don't lose your head. You're unbeatable when your mind isn't clouded. I'm going to fly to the farm, have Shuri send a message when the challenges are over. And thank you, again."

"You're family now, it's what we do."

Amnesia leaves heading to the hangar. She takes a small quinjet sort of thing after clearing it with the person in charge and then flies home to her soldier, landing on the driveway. Bucky gets up and walks to the door as the kids run off. They love messing with him, and they've found he's not bad with children. She gets out and meets him, kissing him softly when she does.

"Why the plane?" He asks.

"That spider man is a kid. I'm going to make Stark stop bringing him into battle."

"They'll arrest you," he says putting a stop to the idea at once.

"They won't get close enough to do so. Stark is in New York, he sold the tower and is overseeing that. I'll be in and out and untraceable. James, I'm not letting a kid get caught up in all of this."

"Hey, Stark isn't Hydra," James says lifting her up with his arm so they're level with each other. "You remember that kid, he handled us just fine."

"Yeah and then Steve dropped an airplane hangar on him. He's a kid James. I don't care if he can stop a tank with his bare hands. He's got family to worry about. Stark just worries about himself."

"We're okay. I'm right here and safe. Stark threatened you last time we saw him. Your arm was smashed. Don't paint a bigger target on your back."

"He won't hurt me James."

"I'm going with you then," he says resigning himself to the fact that his girl is going to do whatever she wishes.

"No you can't. If you do then who will take care of Steve, Vision, and Fitzgerald?"

"The sheep will be fine."

"And Clint, Sam, Tony, and Pork?"

"Fine. I still can't believe I let you name a chicken Pork," James says with a sigh and she smiles.

"I let you name one Sam," she points out and he chuckles.

"Well, it looked like him. Just like you thought the sheep looked like Vision."

"The next time we see Steve I'm telling him you named a sheep after him."

"I'll tell Clint about the chicken," he counters.

"I already did."

"When are you leaving," Bucky asks setting her down. She frowns knowing how much he hates not having the use of both his arms. They thought it was best though, he could better transition to normal life by confronting his losses. He never even had a chance to deal with his lost arm. She kisses his shoulder and sighs, looking back up at him, her expression firm.

"After the challenges. T'Challa doesn't want me to leave if I'd come back to a different ruler."

"If he doesn't think it's smart, I agree with him. Don't leave. We can get a message out to Steve or someone else and they can step in. Not you."

"He's not going to lose today, even if he is challenged. I painted Stark's suits pink by the way, so I need to tell him that was me. It's the little things in life that make me happy. Also, Steve and everyone else are in the same boat as us. I have the ability to get to Stark without getting caught and turned in, and if things go wrong, I can get out of there with the least damage. You're not going to change my mind, James. Not this time," she calls out to him as she walks inside when she sees the look on his face.

"When have I ever been able to change your mind? I can delay you though," he states, a smirk on his face.

"How?" She asks not understanding what he's implying at first. It does when she sees his eyes on her. A smirk takes over her face as he steps forward, and her backward until she hits the bed.

She leaves after lunch and arrives on the outskirts of NYC as the sun is going down. She lands in an empty parking lot south of the city and decides she'd rather push the rest of her so-called mission to the morning and then goes to sleep.


	14. xiv

In the morning she tracked down Tony in time to patch onto a call from him to the kid which led her to the Staten Island ferry. There were several FBI agents on board and that was enough encouragement to keep Amnesia from joining them. Instead she watched what looked like a weapons trade. Maybe even vibranium weapons which sparked much more of her interest. She pulled up more information with facial recognition before the situation got completely out of hand.

Spider kid was out of his depth, the FBI agents even more so. She grabs her wrist, making sure her kimoyo beads are on and then deploys herself to the ship as it comes apart and Iron Man saves the day. She finds the controls of the ship easily and gets them working enough to get the ship to port. As she heads back to the ship she sends calming electrical pulses through the ship, and they affect enough people to contain the panic. She follows the ship to port and then turns her attention to the kid and billionaire. She flys the jet over to them and deploys herself onto the rooftop several feet away from them, catching the end of their conversation and the kid's eyes.

"I paint your suits pink on a dare only to find out that you sent a fifteen year old into battle," Amnesia snarls when Tony turns and sees her. "You sent him to fight trained killers and continue to do so. Have you lost your damn mind Stark?"

"You shouldn't be here," he tells her, unable to argue because he knows she's right.

"I shouldn't have to be. You should know the line," she thunders pointing into his chest.

"Uhm. Miss Assassin, uh it's not his fault. I did this myself," Peter says and she turns her eyes to him.

"That's a nice looking suit Peter. You must've put _years_ of work into developing the technology in it. No? That's right, he did," Amnesia says her voice more even as she points back at the billionaire. "Now, you seem smart enough, what's the age of enlistment for the United States military?"

Peter looks at Tony wondering what he should do in this situation. Seeing that he's not going to answer, Amnesia continues her tirade. "Seventeen with a parent's permission. What would your aunt say if she found out that the genius billionaire Tony Stark took her nephew to go fight a bunch of war criminals, and is now picking fights with weapons dealers?"

"What am I supposed to do? Let innocent people get hurt?"

"I swear on Steve the sheep," she huffs looking at the sky. Her anger dissipating. She can't stay mad at Tony, not now. He looks too broken on the inside and the kid is irrational.

"You named a sheep Steve?" Tony cuts in and she rolls her eyes not caring enough to respond to that one. If she gives him too much information he might figure it out.

"Toomes. Adrian Toomes. He's been refashioning Chitauri weaponry-mostly Chitauri weaponry to something more usable. He's got others working under him and he won't have a problem killing a fifteen year old, especially if he's associated with the Avengers. Weekends, get him training with Vision," she says much more calmly. "If he's going to keep being stupid might as well get him on the same page as Barton at least."

"Did you seriously come out of hiding just to yell at me?" Tony asks after a moment too long of silence.

"Think of where and when I started Tony. For something like this, of course I would. So if I see you bringing him into some giant battle within the next two years, I will make the Stark name disappear from the face of the Earth."

"Sorry Amn," Tony says and she takes his hand and squeezes it.

"Sorry for the parts I played too. You seeing that therapist I recommended?"

"You recommended her? I thought that was Rhodes playing a joke."

"You need someone to talk to about what happened. You've got a severe case of PTSD and you're not just looking out for yourself anymore. And speaking of Rhodes, how are the legs working out?"

"It'll be a long process but the designs that I assume were from you helped a lot. Your arm is obviously better."

"Mr Stark?" Peter interrupts nervously looking rapidly between the two older people. "Can I go?"

"Not with the suit," he counters.

"I don't have any other clothes," he says and Amnesia raises an eyebrow.

She sets an arm on Tony's shoulder and gives him permission to answer any questions Peter's got as well as giving a silent "I'll meet you back here in ten minutes."

"My name is Amnesia. Be careful kid, you're not invincible. Also, go to the MOMA and see _Starry Night_ for me okay? I'm thinking of adopting it but I don't know if it's too overrated or not," she trails off, shaking Peter's hand and implanting the memory of a car picking her up.

"Don't steal the famous Van Gogh painting," Tony says boredly.

"Why not? I'm already a criminal, might as well be a criminal for an actual crime," she says as they go off. She takes a deep breath after they leave and stares out onto the Brooklyn/Manhattan skyline. She feels the power humming through the building below her and the power grid connecting it to the rest of the island behind her. She narrows her gaze to Brooklyn and recalls what it looked like years ago through her beloved's eyes.

"The world must've been so different back then," she muses aloud sensing Tony's presence on the roof again. "After what happened in Siberia I pictured what my life might have been like if my mother hadn't sold me to Hydra. I wondered what might have happened if she still got rid of me but just dropped me off at an orphanage instead. The tesseract might still be locked away today if it weren't for me. My James, your father, Hell, maybe even Steve. Millions more would've been saved I'd estimate. But here we are."

"Here we are. I'm happy to see you again. You shouldn't have come though. I'm supposed to be arresting you right now," Tony says sitting next to her on the rooftop.

"Yes, you should. But you're still a good man Tony Stark. We've all got our burdens to bare, and sometimes actions are unforgivable. I hope one day you will be able to forgive James, or at least hear his apology. He was friends with your father you know? During the time that Hydra held him though, he was barely even human. It's why Pierce got so far up in the chain of command. He looked like Rogers enough to effectively manipulate James. He wouldn't recognize me, or you, Steve, or even his mother. Sometimes he's able to forget his missions. Not for long enough though. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I just...I thought you knew."

"I'm not mad at you. Never was. I just-he killed my Mom. How is everyone?" Tony asks abruptly changing the subject.

"I haven't seen them. I sent Clint back home. I know Wanda went with him, just for a while. Steve said he was going to look for Natasha, Sam went with him. Zemo won, the avengers have disassembled."

"He's paying for it though."

"Maybe he was right to," Amnesia offers with a shrug. "When there is a strong force of good something always rises to challenge it and the avengers are the strongest. Loki brought you together, Ultron kept you together. Perhaps there will be time before the next big global disaster."

"Hopefully not in this lifetime," Tony replies hugging Amnesia, sharing in the grief of their lost family.

"Tony, keep an eye on Clint for me? Try to keep him out of whoever's agenda as long as possible. I told him to move but we both know he won't. And make amends with Pepper. You shouldn't be alone now." She steps back and offers Tony her hand and she explains in his head that he can't know how she leaves when she takes his hand, he nods and she implants a memory of Thor landing and kidnapping her. She really wants to meet him.

She calls her jet to the side of the roof and jumps on as they go their separate ways.

She reaches Wakanda a few minutes after T'Challa, Nakia, and Okoye arrive from from their mission. This alerts her to the presence of one Everett Ross. She immediately follows them to the lab silently asking Okoye what the hell happened for her to respond with an exasperated look that tells her not to ask. So she just follows and listens and helps Shuri when they reach the lab. Once they get Ross stable, she decides to go find her James, not knowing if she can trust Ross to keep her presence in Wakanda a secret.

She reaches the farm as Bucky is finishing up with dinner. James immediately pulls her in close and Amnesia mirrors the action. She breathes easier now that they're back together and follows him into their home as Steve the sheep lets out a long exasperated "baa" because Fitzgerald is being a jerk. She smiles and they settle around the table, James electing to have Amnesia sit on his lap instead of the chair next to him. She fills him in on her trip to New York and mentions that T'Challa brought Everett back with him from a mission to intercept Klaue. He agrees that Ross shouldn't find out she's there as they turn on the record player and start slowly dancing, their food finished and forgotten.

They move in sync around the small house, Bucky twirling her every once in a while. He starts to miss his other arm and how he was able to hold her that much closer to him. But it also reminded him that he had people to watch his back. It reminded him that he had a friend worth dying for and one who would die for him in return too.

"What's wrong?" Amnesia asks quietly seeing the look on his face.

"I'm just thinking about Steve," he says.

"What about him?" She asks with a smile. Most of his Steve memories are good ones.

"I guess I just miss him," he replies with a shrug.

"We can track him down if you'd like?"

"No. No I think I'll be more of a hinderance now. We've got the farm to look after anyways."

"James, you would never be a hinderance. He's your best friend. That hasn't changed," Amnesia tells him.

"But a lot has. I used to protect him. Now...now he doesn't need it."

"No way. He's Steve Rogers. He will always need your help. Who knows maybe he'll try to fight some evil purple space titan with his bare hands," Amnesia says with an eye roll. "Steve will always do stupid stuff that someone will have to pull him out of."

"You're right. The stupid kid is always looking for a fight," he says with exasperation and Amnesia smiles.

When the album finishes, James heads out to finish the chores and Amnesia is about to settle for a nap when they get a notification from Shuri requesting Amnesia's assistance in keeping Ross from touching anything. She frowns knowing there's more to it than that. Shuri loves showing off her lab, especially to outsiders that haven't ever seen anything like it. She must be leaving the lab if she needs assistance, and that's nothing to take lightly if it means leaving an outsider in her lab. T'Challa better not be dying. Bucky gives her a stern look when he sees her head back to her motorcycle already knowing where she's going.

"Shuri is having trouble and I need to help her out. I'll be back before dark hopefully. I'll let you know if something happens."

"I just wish you weren't always in the line of fire doll." He explains meeting her at the bike. "I know," he says tenderly.

"I know," she replies just as passionately. "I'll take a break after this. I need to catch up with Pork and the rest of the girls. We should get some goats."

"I'm never letting you name the animals again."

"I know. But I will anyways, and you'll go along with it," she says once more with an even bigger smile and then she takes off back towards the palace.


	15. xv

Shuri is running around like a mad woman when Amnesia arrives in the lab. This erratic behavior causes most of her focus to drift towards the young girl instead of the ex-fighter pilot analyzing the view of the mine.

"What's wrong?" Amnesia asks having not gained the attention of Ross quite yet.

"There's a man that just showed up on the border with Klaue."

"Alright. I assume he couldn't breach the borders though yeah?"

"He's one of us. W'Kabi is bringing him in along with the body," Shuri explains and Amnesia raises an eyebrow. "He brought Klaue dead."

"Alright. I'll start pulling up information. Save Klaue's body. I might be able to pull some information on his buyers and chain of command. Help speed the process of stifling that quicker." Amnesia breaks off from Shuri heading to her own sand table and digging her hands into it. Her eyes go white and it takes her all of twenty seconds to find the dirt that relates the man, Erik Killmonger, back to Wakanda, and back to its former king. She pulls her hands out breathing in sharply and looks around to see Shuri gone already. She meets Everett's eyes though.

"T'Challa is in trouble. Killmonger isn't one of your own. Never has been," she says shutting him up before he can ask questions. "He's Wakandan by blood and birthright. But he's also an American so if he wins the challenge we have another world war on our hands. It's always the stupid Americans."

"Challenge?" He asks.

"Killmonger is T'Challa's cousin. He came for Wakanda. There will be a challenge because it's his birthright. T'Challa won't be thinking straight." Amnesia states aloud so he can attempt to follow some of her thinking. She sends a message to James and tells him she's going to be late getting back. She doesn't tell him why because then he will feel forced to get involved and Amnesia is sure he will get hurt. With the type of mind that Killmonger seems to have, it won't be safe for him...or her really but she doesn't invoke the same type of violence as he does.

She also tweets M'Baku and tells him he's her favorite. If T'Challa loses, M'Baku is their only chance at getting a sane ruler. Amnesia likes her farm and job so she doesn't want to be kicked out for being an outsider. Then she starts "child locking" everything just in case. It takes a lot of time to do it all but practically none to undo it. If things go wrong, this lab could put very dangerous weapons into the hands of very heartless men.

Hours later, when Amnesia gets the message her shoulders fall in defeat. T'Challa was a good man and saved her life. She never wanted to see him die. She looks over to Everett grabs his wrist and leads him out of the lab, locking it behind her. As she does this she sucks in energy, every light going out in the palace in mourning. She doesn't tell James. She knows better.

They meet Nakia and together they join the Queen mother and Shuri then journey to the mountain tops. Their only light being the glow of her white eyes. Along the way, she finds herself next to Shuri, heart aching for the young girl. She wordlessly hugs the girl sending her any comfort she has.

The hike up the mountains is a long one and the further they go, the colder it gets, and the more snow covers the vibranium in the ground beneath it. Amnesia feels cut off, and very, very cold. The signs of the hike are first seen on her, as her breath becomes more labored and her grip on the cloak covering her weakens with every step. She is the epitome of the weary traveler. Nakia, guided by instinct, gently tugs the girl along holding her hand.

She is unsure of Amnesia. She knows that T'Challa held her in high esteem and that she had a boyfriend also in hiding with her. Since Amnesia was working with Shuri, Nakia assumed the girl was highly intelligent, and the Queen Mother had always reserved a tender look for the girl she had legally adopted into her family. Nakia assumed she was jealous. T'Challa liked her and although she knew there was nothing going on between them, it kind of made her jealous. It was easy to be jealous of someone she didn't know.

Yet they trudged on, Nakia leading the way and anchoring the silver haired girl to the group. They didn't talk much, too focused on the task at hand and too tired to consider much else as the night grew short.

"Where are we going?" Ross finally asks hours later as the sun starts to rise and the temperature drops to freezing. Nakia answers and then the Queen mother finds her wits and expresses her thoughts. Nakia releases Amnesia's hand and moves toward the older woman.

"We need to see M'Baku," Amnesia states ending their disagreement as they all look to her for an explanation. "They're waiting for us. I can feel it in the ground. They're not hostile...they're patient."

"And how do you know all this?" Everett asks.

"Vibranium," Amnesia answers not giving him anymore information on herself to him and the government. She doesn't trust him to protect her secret and he only thinks she helped James, not anything more complicated...yet. It's a descriptive enough answer anyways if he did know anything about her. "They're here," she adds looking up and around them when she feels the energy of unquiet minds.

"Oh shit," Ross mutters as they all square themselves back to back.

"Look down, stay calm," Nakia commands and Amnesia immediately follows her advice and send calming waves of energy through the ground even though she can't stop the bolts of lightning flickering between her fingers. She stands between the Queen mother and Nakia ready to defend the Queen mother if need be. They are ushered to a narrow room perched on the higher peak where the wind blows through and yet the room remains a comfortable temperature. Sitting at the end of the room is M'Baku, leaning back leisurely a guard on either side of him. Amnesia stands next to Ross and attempts to hide her discomfort. The room they stand in doesn't connect her to the vibranium running through Wakanda and she's felt the most powerless she has in a while despite her eyes being a glowing white from the energy running through her.

"My son was murdered in ritual combat," the Queen mother says, being the first to speak.

"Were the odds fair?" He asks.

"Yes, but" Shuri begins but is cut off.

"So it was less a murder than a defeat."

"Do not rub our noses in it," Shuri commands and Amnesia looks sadly at the girl as she gets cut off again.

"I make the pronouncements here, girl."

"Look uh, your highness, the new king is a US," Everett starts and Amnesia breathes in annoyedly before sending him a look that says shut up. He doesn't catch it though because M'Baku shuts him up in his own way. "The new king..."

"You cannot talk," M'Baku commands. "One more word and I will feed you to my children." Amnesia glances at Ross, sees an opportunity she might not get again, decides if she's the vengeful type, she's not. At least not really but then she remembers how they locked up her beloved. She reaches out touches his shoulder and he drops to the ground, his energy depleted. "I was kidding. We are vegetarians," M'Baku tells the silver haired girl with a raised eyebrow.

"She's wanted to do that for a while," Shuri explains after a moment of silence.

"Great Gorilla M'Baku," Nakia begins before stepping forward and kneeling. "This is why we are here," she explains holding out the heart shaped herb. "To offer this to you. An outsider sits on our throne. Only _you_ can help us stop him."

He stands up as the Queen mother, Shuri and Amnesia follows her example. "Come with me," he commands leaving the room. Amnesia frowns at Everett then looks to one of the guards.

"He will be out for at least another hour," she tells them before following. M'Baku leads them to another building and in that building is a sight that stops them short. T'Challa lying on a bed of snow. The women surround him quickly, Amnesia measuring his heart beat and only halfway listening to the other's conversation.

"He's alive but barely. If you're going to give him that herb I'll need to speed his heart rate back up so it actually spreads through his system," Amnesia murmurs aloud then looks to the Queen mother for her permission. She nods. "Prepare it," she commands before closing her eyes and focusing on saving the king of Wakanda. When she's done she looks up to T'Challa's mother and nods, then backs away and joins M'Baku.

"I like your Twitter," she says breaking the silence. He looks at her and laughs. They turn when T'Challa awakes and Amnesia sighs in relief. They catch up back in M'Baku's throne room and Amnesia stays quiet, her worry shifting to James as they speak more and more about Killmonger mounting an attack force.

"They don't have access to the lab. I child proofed it before we fled," Amnesia finally speaks when Shuri expresses her concern over the designs. "But that won't stop him from sending weapons all over the world. At least if he does succeed, someone _will_ kill Donald Trump."

"We have to get you out of Wakanda safely," T'Challa states and this puts his family on the defense. Amnesia shakes her head knowing he won't win this argument. It ends with Shuri holding out the necklace that is T'Challa's armor.

"The Black Panther lives," she says. "And when he fights for the fate of Wakanda, I will be right there beside you."

"As will I," Nakia adds.

"I'll be there too, but if you die again, I will kill you," Amnesia states with a straight face that T'Challa has no choice but to smile at. Amnesia looks about as intimidating as a golden retriever puppy, and that's with the glowing white eyes.

"I'm in too," Ross says.

"Damn it. He's awake," Amnesia says under her breath for her own satisfaction with a pout.

M'Baku yawns comically loud and interrupts their heartfelt moment. "Are you done?" He asks, his annoyance clear. Amnesia furrows her eyebrows and watches him quizzically wondering what he will do with all the fighting going on below him. She looks to T'Challa and sets a hand on his shoulder conveying this thought. He looks at her and nods. She gives him a silent "good luck." Then steps out of the building waiting just outside.

"Could you give me and M'Baku a moment?" T'Challa asks and everyone else slowly walks out.


	16. xvi

"You should have gone with Shuri," T'Challa tells Amnesia once the group splits up near the palace.

"I will be more help here in case W'Kabi doesn't take your side. This counts as a civil war. I'll be able to incapacitate the enemy without a death toll. Unless they're like you and don't stay down," Amnesia says hiding her nervousness.

"I hope they're not," he replies with a smile.

"They've started," Amnesia points out seeing a cargo ship launch. She focuses on the energy running through it and absorbs what she can. The ship dips in altitude enough for T'Challa to pull it down. He climbs over the wreckage and yells out to the crowd that saw the ship go down as Amnesia runs to catch up. She gets around the wreckage in time to see the boys in blue running towards them ready to take out T'Challa.

She sighs and reaches into people's heads turning some of them to fight for T'Challa with some words of encouragement. She doesn't take their free will or affect their memories, she just encourages them to follow T'Challa and some do. The ones that don't, she causes them to fall to the ground, unconscious. She keeps moving forward as this occurs and the few that make it to her she's able to reach out and take down.

She slips up once and is ripped from turning people by none other than W'Kabi. He hits her back to the ground and challenges her to get up, she does with a glare concentrating on what Bucky has taught her. She is still a novice and nowhere near being a warrior but that's when she doesn't use her power. She surges energy through him, paralyzing him and causing his muscles to tense up, then she punches him in the face as hard as she can. She screams as he falls to the ground and cradles her hand which she is pretty sure is broken. She skitters away and is attacked again but this time a Dora is able to help her. She recognizes Ayo and pushes past her pain and reaches out to start turning and putting people down. They're back on the rise until W'Kabi calls the rhinos into battle. One plows into Ayo sending her flying and brushes Amnesia knocking her to the ground. She focuses on it like she did the helicopter and it collapses as Shuri calls for her in warning.

Amnesia dodges a hit just barely. Then takes that guy out and sees Nakia and Shuri fighting Killmonger. She starts running, lighting flickering from her hands and across vibranium ore poking out of the ground. Suddenly she's more fearsome than a puppy. Just as he hits Nakia away, she gets there and immediately she pulls energy from him which allows Shuri to use her blasters to power down the suit he wears. Amnesia sneaks up and attempts to grab the necklace from him. Killmonger gets the jump on them though as he's able to knock Amnesia away, she lands on her back twenty feet away unconscious for ten seconds. She comes too in time to see T'Challa rushing over and knocking Killmonger off of Shuri and they both fall into the mine below.

She breathes heavily and slowly gets up crying out when she puts weight on her ankle. One look tells her it's very broken. She looks around her and spots a discarded spear. Making the stupidest decision she's made that day, she grabs the spear and uses it to stand up. She observes the battle going on around her looking for somewhere she'd be the most helpful without needing to move. She sees the small hill right in the heart of the battle near the fallen ship from early. She rolls her shoulders back, wincing at the sore muscles and starts hobbling over there, taking people out while standing on one foot.

Shuri and Nakia join her, Amnesia points out where she wants to go and Shuri bears some of her weight to get her there. They get there and Shuri and Nakia give her a boost so she's sitting on top of the deposit and then they start fighting for their lives. Amnesia guards their backs by taking out anyone who approaches her. When they start to get overrun on their side Amnesia turns backs to the girls seeing the shields pressed together. That's all the distracting that the man sneaking up behind her needed. He nudged her with his shield and she turned drawing the energy from him as he's lifted into the air and tossed away like a rag doll.

Amnesia smiles seeing M'Baku standing behind her. "Witness the might of the Jabari!" He yells and she quickly turns her attention to the ring of shields surrounding them, they stop working like a light switch just in time for M'Baku's people to rip apart their formation. Her focus becomes more targeted to the people that are doing the most damage, she wants to save the good fighters on either side.

Then, all of a sudden like clockwork W'Kabi's people drop their weapons and kneel in surrender. Amnesia lets out a sigh of relief, ready to collapse.

"Someone tell my boyfriend I'm sorry I was stupid," Amnesia says loudly before lying back on the ground and shutting her eyes.

She doesn't open them again until she feels someone's gaze on her and she opens her eyes to see Okoye standing above her. She raises an eyebrow wondering why the girl hasn't bothered to get up or move.

"I went on a giant ass hike then fought in a mini war and got tossed around like a rag doll. I'm tired, my ankle is broken, so are a few of my fingers and the only major repairs that need to be done are to the cargo ships that our very own king took down. James is going to be so pissed at me. He might not let me get a goat," Amnesia rambles on, just continuing to talk once she's started. "I was gonna name it Everett. Or no! I'm gonna get a pig and name the pig Everett. I'll name the goat Donnie. Or Chris, there aren't very many Chris's right? I don't know any."

"Let's get you to an infirmary," Okoye says nodding to two of the better off Dora. They hoist her up and Amnesia winces.

"Did someone tell James what happened? I don't want him breaking into the palace again. That definitely wasn't good for his mental health and just bring me to the lab. I can heal it there by myself, then others can be helped," she says as they hobble along. They keep walking and Amnesia draws in power from the building so she doesn't just collapse to the ground.

She gets to work on her ankle immediately, setting it and arranging the presets then she just passes out and takes a nap. She briefly debates the fact that she should make sure T'Challa's alive but decides she will deal with that in the morning...or whenever she wakes up.

She wakes up breathing hard a couple hours later, driven to consciousness by her dream. It wasn't exactly hers though. It was Vision's this time. Usually she's stuck reliving James's worst nightmares which often coincided with her own. The weird aliens though, they were Vision's. She looks to the side and isn't completely surprised to see James.

"Please don't yell at me," she mumbles before he can say anything. The angry look on his face immediately disappears.

"Then don't do that to me ever again," he murmurs. Amnesia nods then looks over her ankle to see the status.

"Can we go back home?" She asks seeing that it's healed enough to put weight on it and it will be just bruises in another hour.

"If that's what you want," he allows and she smiles slightly and nods. She starts turning off the equipment and then gets up gingerly. He gets up as well and she cranes her neck to look up and meet his eyes. She reaches up and pulls him down for a kiss. He picks her up and swings her around so she's on his back. They leave the palace like this, Amnesia fell asleep before they got to the car but that didn't stop James from buckling her into the passenger seat and heading out, giving Okoye a nod from where she observed at one of the big windows.

He heard what had happened and he would love to chase down Okoye's husband and beat some sense into him but he also knew that she would rather do it herself. Okoye kept an eye out for Amnesia the first two weeks they were there, and she continued to do so even after. James doesn't trust T'Challa like Amnesia does, but he does trust Okoye. And Shuri. He trusts Shuri, but it's hard not to when she was so welcoming to him and his Amnesia. He leaves the car outside the hut and carries Amnesia inside, smiling at the kids playing with the sheep and the new goat. He got it as a surprise for his girl and he hopes she will appreciate it when she wakes up.

She may not appreciate his name for it. He started calling him Wilson because he thought it was one ugly goat. That's two animals for Sam so far. At the rate they're going though, it won't be long before Amnesia is asking for a cat or dog. A herding dog might be nice though he muses as he lies Amnesia down and tucks her in. He walks around to his side of the bed and joins her.

He's kind of worried that she never really stirred on their way here but her heartbeat remained steady and so did her breathing so she's probably just extremely tired from all that transpired the past few days. That includes her ankle. It takes a lot of energy to heal oneself and he recalls that her eyes were more green than any higher reading when she was awake. He pulls her close and kisses the top of her head, grateful she returned to him in one piece.

He knows how stir crazy she gets, even when she tries not to show it. It was different when they were on the run. They were always moving and at the time, Amnesia was interested in learning all of the domestic little ticks. Now, she knows what all of that means and knows what it's like to not have to travel constantly. She's moved past that phase, at least for now. He's glad she found solace in the lab and doing her part to help out the king, she got too anxious in the bungalow and he really liked the farm and didn't really want to move again. They were very different the two of them, but they managed to balance each other out despite that.

"I know," Amnesia says her voice showing her exhaustion and James looks down to see her eyes open, peering up at him curiously.

"I know," he returns, kissing her on the forehead.


	17. xvii

Amnesia arrived back at the farm to see James standing at the door to the hut. She gets off the bike and smiles, walking over to her man.

"They took it rather well," she states with a soft grin.

"What?" He asks meeting her smile with a smirk that always manages to make her weak.

"I'm taking some time off," she explains and he straightens up, not expecting that answer. "I brought a project with me to work on, but I'm taking a step back. We just... we aren't running right now. It's peace time, it's just taken me until now to realize I haven't been a civilian in a long long time. I've been so afraid that someone will come along and take you from me. It is peace time," Amnesia states her confusion evident on her face.

James pulls her closer to him and sets his forehead against her own. He closes his eyes and relishes in the moment. He never wants to let her go again. He hasn't gotten around to yelling at her for the events that recently transpired. Whenever he's tried she's managed to distract him or change the subject, or leave to visit the palace and take a leave of absence from her unofficial job. How could he yell at her now when she did exactly what he had wanted her to?

Amnesia just thinks about why he's not kissing her. She thinks about stepping on his toe so he'll bend lower and connect their lips. Then she gets distracted when she hears Wilson bleating. Her attention recaptured a millisecond later by James releasing the breath he's been holding. His arms tighten around her and she finally just pushes down on his shoulders and meets his lips with her own in a sweet kiss to seal the moment.

"I don't ever want to see you in the line of fire again," he states when they pull apart.

"I can't make that promise and neither can you. We both have our duties."

"Screw that, doll. My only duty is to you."

"I know," she states, whispering their own version of "I love you."

"I know," he returns.

"Let's feed Wilson then, yeah?" Amnesia murmurs when the goat yells again.

"Did you know that goats were one of the first animals that humans tamed and herded? But since they're herd animals, they get lonely." Amnesia says beginning to ramble.

"We're not getting another goat."

"I ordered one already," Amnesia says waving him off. "Besides, I let you name this one. I get to name the next one. We should get a dog too. Maybe a collie? They're good herding dogs. We can teach the goats their names. They're very smart animals actually, they're just hard to train. Dogs are easier to train. Maybe we should get a pit bull. Everyone hates pit bulls but everyone is stupid. Pit bulls are so sweet. There aren't bad dogs just bad owners. Please James can we get a dog?"

"Or maybe a Dalmatian." She mumbles when he doesn't respond, too busy switching out the hay. She goes over and grabs a bucket of the chicken feed and the chickens instantly flock to her as she starts tossing it about for them.

"You just want a Dalmatian because of "101 Dalmatians"," James calls out pausing as he switches out the hay.

"Dalmatians used to run beside fire trucks and act as sirens. They're not just from "101 Dalmatians" James."

"Alright, then what were you gonna name it?"

"Horace if it's a boy, Hepburn if it's a girl."

"After that actress? Why?"

"Because I really like Audrey Hepburn and I'm sure our dog will be just as beautiful."

"Next thing I know, we'll have a horse I don't know about," he says rejoining his girl and wrapping an arm around her as they meander back to the house.

"A mule. Mules are more practical."

"No llamas or alpacas though. Our farm isn't that big."

"That's why we will have the dog. A collie would be best though. They're better at herding. Grooming her might suck but she'll be worth it."

"We will just have to wait and see, won't we?" He says and she pouts. "Hey, you already got your goats."

"Well you wanted them too," Amnesia counters.

"What project did you bring home?" James asks changing the subject and starting dinner.

"That energy dead zone I told you about."

"Are you sure that you shouldn't be working on that in the lab?" He asks.

"If it does work how I expect it, it might shut down the whole palace, it'd be better if I worked on it elsewhere. And I brought all the equipment I'll need. You won't be able to get rid of me that easy."

"I just know how bored you get," James assures her.

"Well, this project is one that will probably take me a long while to figure out. I've also got to monitor the whereabouts of one Steve Rogers because he often does stupid things that alerts the government to his and the other's location, and I've decided to put more research into farm life and I want to know if there's a better way to stimulate plant growth in common farm plants. I will be very busy."

"If you say so, Doll. By the way, I'm going to start training you again."

"Okay. That's probably a good idea. I'm out of practice," Amnesia says absently, mixing stuff in a bowl to add to the mix of stuff James has sautéing. He looks over at her and smirks remembering a very similar situation from back in Bucharest.

"Good. Now drop and give me ten push ups."

"What? Really James," Amnesia whines, pouting before doing so.

"Yes," he says taking her bowl of stuff and slowly adding it to everything else. "And-"

"And you'll do ten more if you don't get lower," she mutters before she starts knowing what he's going to say before he says it.

"You know me too well."

"Just make dinner," she commands, panting when she's done a minute or so later.

"You're the better cook," he says causing her to laugh.

"No I'm not. You just like to watch me," she corrects as she sits at their small dining table.

"And that's not what you're doing now?"

"I'm actually researching dog care and collie breeders in the area," Amnesia replies holding up her kimoyo beads as she sets the table.

"I stand corrected," he says with a chuckle, knowing she had also been watching him. "We could name the dog Ellie," he offers a few minutes later.

"Why Ellie?" Amnesia asks with a frown.

"That kids movie we watched two weeks ago with the house and the balloons?"

Amnesia's eyes mist over the first five minutes playing in her head again. Then she goes and tries to order the soundtrack on vinyl and doesn't find it so she orders a custom one. In a perfect world, that would be them. Well, Amnesia would be able to have kids, because in this perfect world, they hadn't been captured by Hydra. Then again, if it hadn't been for Hydra, they probably wouldn't have ever met.

Amnesia realizes she would go through all of that pain again if it meant she would end up here with James. But with another glance at her beloved, she also realizes that she would never subject him to the horrors he had gone through to get here. If she had her way, he and Steve would never have even thought about joining in the war.

"Nes, Nes," James calls and Amnesia blinks realizing she tuned too far out. "What's wrong? We can name the dog something else."

"Don't, don't ever leave me. James, our lives, our lives should have been so different but-but you're you-you are all I have and everyone is they-they don't get it and," Amnesia stutters out and James pulls her to him then over to the stove so he can continue to make dinner without burning it. He frowns missing his arm so he could make dinner with one hand and still hold his girl.

"What brought this on? Because I know it wasn't some stupid movie reference."

"It's," she starts but stops and frowns not having the words.

"Come on 'Nesia, whatever it is, it's obviously bothering you. Talk to me."

Instead she just wraps her arms around him and hides her face in his shoulder, conveying her thought process to him silently.

"'Nes there is nothing you could have done to keep Hydra from happening to me. Nothing to keep Steve from wanting to enlist, and nothing to stop me from getting drafted and joining the commandos just to keep an eye on him. And if it came down to it, I would do all of it again, just to have you next to me. I'd make myself stronger though so you're safer. Maybe try to keep my arm so I can actually hold you while I cook. 'Nesia, I love you and we are on a nice farm, in a safe country, I get to wake up next to you everyday and we don't have to look over our shoulders. Nothing can take this from us okay?"

"I love you too you know," Amnesia mumbles.

"I know," he confirms turning off the heat and finally wrapping his arm around her.

"I know you know."

"And I know you know I love you," he replies proud of himself for following her wordplay.

"I know," Amnesia says with a small smile, her eyes much more dry.

"I know," he says and then he leans down and quickly kisses her before dishing out dinner.

They finish eating and Amnesia cleans up as Bucky herds the animals back into their fenced off areas. Then they dance until the sun sets and fall asleep in their in each other's arms, hiding the nightmares that keep them awake from their partners.

As James Buchanan Barnes lies awake in the middle of the night, holding onto his girl he recalls what he told her earlier, and he agrees with her. If there was a way to go back and spare his girl the pain, he would take it. He'd find her some way under whatever her real name is. He's always been one of those people that believe that if two people are meant to be together, no amount of distance or extreme circumstances will keep them apart. For quite some time, he's been worried more about his own mental stability. He always figured Amnesia was on more solid ground than him but he's starting to see that might not be the case. So he holds her a little tighter, but he's too distracted to notice Amnesia staring at the wall in front of her fed up with thoughts of aliens and foreign gods.

In the morning they'll get up, pretend they're rested. James will feed the animals, Amnesia will make breakfast. Afterwards, she will start to tinker with her project then get distracted by her man working outside. They'll both get distracted even more. Amnesia will create some new invention to make farming easier that she will abandon momentarily after thinking of something to aid in her other project. She'll feed the chickens later before she and James, make dinner together. He'll round up the sheep and goats as she does dishes and then they'll dance around the small hut to the vinyl of the day before going to sleep after getting distracted. Then they spend the night attempting to hide their restlessness from the other only to repeat everything the next day, the day after that and so on.


End file.
